Moonlight

Chapter Ten-Julie

I jerked awake from another nightmare, more than lately they had just been being surrounded by darkness, and I've had plenty of time to doze off down here.

After sitting boredly for about twenty minutes, trying to think of ways to escape the confining cell that it felt like I had been in for years when it was only a couple of days since I had last seen Ace, Mizuko, and Masa; I heard the sound of light footsteps tapping down the hallway and was able to recognize them as Julie's.

"Hi." She said, opening the door with another plate of food.

I studied her, she had abandoned her disguise in my presence by now. "Is there really any point to keeping me down here, I mean, you aren't really treating me like a criminal now and sea stone sucks." I told her.

She froze where she stood for a second and threw the plate of food on the floor, "Whatever, just tell me something interesting."

I growled a little, she really was bringing out the worst in me. "Fine, you want to know something? I just are my devil fruit not that long ago, a week or two at most, and I am really regretting it now." I yanked on my handcuffs.

Julie just hummed a little and sat down, "What power do you have?"

"It was a zoan type, I have the ability to transform into a raven." I said.

Julie seemed to be considering something for a moment, and I realized her personality had changed from just about a day ago when she had pulled her mask off and acted like a snobby teenager, now she seemed to want to hear all my stories. Of course I was still unwilling to tell her some.

She stood up and pulled a key out of her pocket and walked over, unshackling my hands, and my arms fell limply to my sides. "What-" I started, but was interrupted.

"Show me." She said.

"Huh? Why should I?" I replied, annoyed.

Julie yanked me up by pulling on my worn shirt, "If I let you come with me instead of keeping you locked up can you promise not to try and escape?" She asked.

*Is she crazy?* I thought, *Who isn't going to try to escape when presented with the chance to?*

Of course I was still weak so I followed her, curious about what she wanted to do with me now.

We exited the cell and walked down a long hallway lit by torches until we reached a spiraling staircase and began to climb it. It seemed to go up forever, and I was tired by the time we reached the top.

To my exasperation we walked down another long hallway that sloped up slightly, filled with a few guards who seemed to be curious about what Julie was doing. I was too.

Well, even if they were acting curious, they didn't do anything as we reached the end of the hall. We stopped in front of a pair of double doors and Julie pushed them open, placing on her strangely detailed mask and wig on the same time. Where they came from I couldn't say.

It seemed we were exiting from the side of a building out into an alley and I quickly realized that the building was the house she lived in. Unless there was another building in the underground town that looked exactly like her house.

Julie took a hold of my wrist and dragged me out of the alley to the front of the building, and when we entered I saw my assumption of it being her house was correct. We passed through the exact room where I stood before and was 'captured' in.

We reached our final destination when we entered a large room, empty except for a king sized bed and a two couches positioned in front of it.

I sat down on the maroon colored one of the two as Julie closed the doors carefully behind her, she then sat down of the silver couch.

"Well, to start with, um, I realized nobody really explained much to you yet, and I found you to be more interesting than I thought, and I just..." She stuttered all over the place as she quickly took her wig and mask off again.

I looked at her for a moment, "I don't think I understand what you're trying to say?" I responded to her current silence.

She sighed and ran her hands through her hair, "Well original I kidnapped you as payment for giving your friends information, you know that. But I found out that you already had quite a few interesting stories even though you just started your journey and I just... I guess I was a little jealous. Do you mind if I tell you my back story? I've never had anyone to tell and I need to get it off my chest I guess."

I was a little taken aback by her long statement and question. I mean we met on bad terms, I was surprised she was this trusting already of someone who was her prisoner. I didn't really have a reason to say no, so I just nodded my head.

She looked momentarily relieved for a second and took a deep breath. "You see-"

A little girl, about eleven years old with flowing brown hair and hazel eyes sat blankly on a cold couch, watching the scene unfold before her.

Her eyes didn't have much sparkle in them, after all this wasn't the first time this had happened, she was used to it.

Her mother and father were arguing again, some things were things she didn't really understand, but a lot of it was about whether it was really beneficial to be living in an underground town.

*Of course it isn't,* The girl thought to herself, *but that's how it's always been, right?*

She hopped off the couch and headed for the door, her parents hardly noticing her. "Mother, father, I'm going out to go see if I can find Lupus and the others." She called before exiting.

"Wait, Julie, you musn't hang out around them-" Julie heard her mother call in response, but she had already closed the front door before she could hear the rest of that lecture again.

She broke out into a run for the staircase, which was much easier to do now that she stopped wearing all the frilly dresses her mom always tried to make her wear.

*Jeez, why does mother always have to act so 'proper', I mean we're living in an underground village so everything is bound to get dirty quickly anyways.* Julie thought to herself.

When the village guards saw her they allowed her to pass, smiles plastered onto their faces.

Julie dead sprinted up the stairs and when she reached the top, she was panting.

The fresh air felt good on her face, the last time she managed to escape outside was a couple of months ago.

Julie admired the blue sky, and headed off towards the point of the star-shaped island she knew was under Lupus's control. She would visit the rest of the animal controlling people later, but first was always Lupus because he was close in age to her and was the first person she had met when she went outside for the first time.

And with that, she ran off into the forest, escaping the clutches of the underground town, even If it was only for a short amount of time.

A/N: First of all, thank you KeepHopeStayWhelmed for your review on the story despite the fact I haven't updated it since September! It made me feel inspired enough to finally finish the ending of this chapter that I've been putting off. And also you're probably right, I must've misspelled it or something, do you remember what chapter I mentioned that in?

Well continuing on, today I got to right responses to little first graders letters to Santa and they were so very cute! It's just what I need after this week full of stressful presentations and etc. I wish I could be in first grade again... *goes off into my own daydreams* Oops, I think I need to get some more sleep.

Finally, If anyone has any anime recommendations for me please tell me some, winter break is in a week and I'm totally planning on staying in bed allllllll day long for a couple days straight (except for like food and stuff) so I'll need to make sure I have plenty to watch!

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, I might update my other fanfiction story soon (the other one piece one, not warriors haha...) if you're lucky. Have a good weekend!