The Extra of The Lunerra



When I turned off the bright light of my desk lamp, the whole room was suddenly plunged into darkness.

With a deep sigh, I sat up, stretched, and then turned on the light. After packing my books and my bag, I looked at the clock.

It was already night, time for me to go to bed. At least I had to go to bed now if I didn't want to fall asleep at school.

Without thinking too much, I let myself fall into my bed. So I closed my eyes, turned over, and tried to fall asleep. Minutes passed in silence, and with my consciousness refusing to close, my eyes opened again.

"I can't sleep..."

I raised my arm, opened my watch, which I had bought with the money my brother had given me when my phone had recently broken, and a holographic screen opened in front of me.

I was still not used to it, but it was much better and faster than my previous phones. So I was doing my best to get used to it.

While examining the holographic screen, I saw a message on the screen, a message that was sent about half an hour ago.

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Paul: Sorry for writing so late Clara, can we meet tomorrow after classes? It would be best to finish the project paper quickly. 

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A smile appeared on my face, then I typed a response on the keyboard that appeared on the holographic screen.

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You: Sure, I want to finish it quickly too. 

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It didn't take long to get a response as if he had been expecting it all along.

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Paul: Good, I'll meet you at the usual table in the library. You: Okay. Paul: Good night then, go to sleep quickly or you'll have your head in your arms halfway through the lectures. 

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The smile on my face faded slightly.

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You: Shut up, that's not why I sleep in class. 

Paul: Are you sure? If you print out your sleep patterns for a week, I can show you more easily why you sleep in class. 

You: Whatever! 

Paul: And now you're running away... 

You: No, I'm not running away! 

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It was fun, talking to Paul. Honestly, he was one of the few people I could really call my friend, so it was fun to spend time with him directly. Whereas all the other kids at school were opportunistic and put on a fake face to show themselves, Paul... He was more optimistic, natural, and pure.

He was also one of the few people I could text at night, apart from my brother and one or two friends I had made early on. So he was going to be my biggest help during the few months when my brother would not be able to communicate with me. I was sure of that, and even now our conversations would go on and on, moving from one topic to another.

Eventually, though, Paul exited the messaging app after one last goodnight message, saying that I really needed to sleep.

I sighed, staring at the screen.

That's actually why I liken him to my brother, who usually does what's best for me without giving me a chance to say anything, just like Paul does.

I closed the holographic screen and then my eyes with a smile on my face. Unlike the previous time, sleep had come to visit this time.

I didn't think anything, I just waited as I slowly surrendered to sleep.

However, when my body succumbed to sleep... something different than the previous times happened.

I didn't black out, I didn't suddenly find myself in the next morning. On the contrary, I was in a completely different place, a place where I could never move my body. It was as if I had a stroke, where I couldn't move a single muscle no matter what I did.

And yet the top of my neck was working perfectly well.

So my eyes opened, and they showed me where I was. I was in the middle of a very dimly lit room, kneeling, unable to move because I was still paralyzed.

Then I noticed someone else in the room with me. My gaze immediately turned in the direction of the voice, and then I saw a boy there, my brother, or rather my real brother.

He was sitting on a chair with his hands clasped together. His long black hair was tangled. His clothes were bloody, especially his hands were red. And his usual soulless, emotionless eyes were on me.

No, he wasn't looking at me. He was focused, immersed. His cold, gray eyes, which made me feel like I was looking at a ghost, were not looking at me but behind me.

The moment I realized this, our eyes met. With a deep sigh, he got up from his seat and approached me.

I wanted to struggle as he approached me, dressed in bloody clothes and looking like a murderer, but nothing happened. He mumbled something, his eyes suddenly shifted to the floor in front of me and I saw something else I hadn't noticed before.

Writing that seemed strange, in a language I didn't understand. A circle was drawn around me, written in blood.

He mumbled again, but I couldn't understand what he was saying. His voice was blocked by something.

The room suddenly lit up. The image flickered, as if being blocked just like my brother's voice.

My brother smiled slightly, and in his eyes, I saw a glimpse of emotion, something I would probably never see again.

Then the room, which was shimmering despite the absence of any light source, was painted completely white by the same light as if it wanted me not to see this image.

I felt something spinning inside me, in my body, and then I realized that it was something like a flame that was blazing right where my heart was... as if it wanted to burn it and everything else.

I opened my mouth, unable to close it again. Yet no sound came out, nothing echoed in the silence. I couldn't even feel any tears, as if they disappeared instantly under the intense heat inside my body and the dazzling glow that surrounded me.

I struggled, or at least I tried to, as the flame that scorched my heart spread throughout my body, slowly traveling through my entire body, almost as if it had melted every single cell. My silent screams continued, and I couldn't even faint. I could only wish for the flames to go away, for the pain to stop, and I did.

After a short while, as if my wish had been granted, when the flame finally reached my neck and then my head, suddenly all the pain stopped. So I felt something inside me snapping, breaking.

No... It was more like a crack than a break.

The glow disappeared in an instant, tears welled up in my eyes and my screams of pain spread through all this eternity. I put my hands over my heart, where I felt the pain most intensely.

Yes, the pain was gone, but it was still in my memories. Just thinking about it made me feel like I was being burned alive again by the same flames. However, when I finally looked where I was with tears in my eyes, I saw something strange.

In front of me, floating in the air, was a gray sphere with a cracked top. It seemed out of place in the infinite. It was something that shouldn't be, against the 'nothingness' here. It was a cracked, large sphere with strange writing on it that I had just seen on the floor, written with my brother's blood.

No light leaked through the cracks, nor could I see what was behind them. Behind them was a deep, gloomy darkness.

Still, I kept looking at the sphere, with great interest. Everything in my mind was suddenly erased, and I approached it as if this gray orb was the most important thing I had ever seen in my life. Involuntarily, but also with a strange fear that I couldn't quite understand.

I put my hand on the orb, felt the strange writing and cracks on it, and my fingers moved slowly but steadily toward the darkness visible through the cracks.

Then the whole infinity trembled.

As if the intense, painful glow from earlier was returning, all this infinity suddenly lit up. The cracks on the gray sphere in front of me widened and the light shook the whole infinity again... as if angry at this.

Intense pain began to burn my heart again. My eyes, already open, strangely opened a second time.

I jumped up, fell off my bed onto the floor, and vomited. The pain disappeared again as if it had never existed. It left me alone in my room where the sunlight had just entered. As I continued to cough, all I could think about was what had happened.

But... there was no one to answer me.