Disclaimer: Shadows on the Moon, all characters, places, and related terms belong to Zoë Marriott.
There You Are (Every Time I Turn Around)
The hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You hesitate following the others inside. Your disappointment slips off your shoulders. You can taste the anticipation now filling the air; can feel the magnetic force reaching out towards you. And you spin around.
Your eyes can see enough. Even across the sun-soaked lawn like an ocean. Even with the shadows half concealing the lone figure. You see: the shabby attire, the disheveled hair, the dirty face. Yet it is the eyes – so dark, so beautiful – which hold your focus, steal away your breath.
(You are carried back to that cold night on the deck of the ship. Faces momentarily close together…leaning against one another…she trembling in shock and you with concern.)
There she is! Under the layers of her shadow weaving, she is lovelier than you remembered. The girl whom frequently plagued your thoughts this past year. Suzume.
And your heart leaps with relief (and more).
THE END