WHEN THE MOON REMEMBERS
Chapter One — A Familiar Stranger
The first time Titi dreamed about the moon, she didn't know it was a warning.
She thought it was beautiful.
That was the first mistake.
She stood barefoot in a forest she had never seen before, staring at an enormous silver moon hanging low above the treetops.
There were no stars.
No clouds.
Only moonlight.
Titi looked down at herself.
She was wearing a long white dress.
"Hello?"
Her voice disappeared into the silence.
She took a cautious step forward. The trees were enormous, their trunks covered in strange silver markings. Some of the symbols looked familiar, but whenever she tried to focus on them, they seemed to change.
"Okay..." she whispered. "This is definitely a dream."
But it felt too real.
The cold beneath her feet.
The wind in her hair.
The smell of rain.
Titi turned around.
She suddenly felt as though someone was behind her.
Nothing.
Then she heard footsteps.
One.
Two.
Three.
She froze.
The footsteps stopped.
A voice came from the darkness.
"Titi."
Her heart jumped.
She knew that voice.
Or at least, some part of her did.
She turned.
A boy stood several feet away.
She couldn't see his face. The moonlight illuminated his body, but his features remained hidden beneath shadows.
Dark clothes.
Dark hair.
Broad shoulders.
"Who are you?" she asked.
He didn't answer.
"Do I know you?"
"I've been waiting for you."
"For me?"
He nodded.
"Why?"
He looked toward the moon.
"You shouldn't be here."
"Then why did you bring me here?"
"I didn't."
Titi stared at him.
"What do you mean?"
He stepped closer.
His eyes seemed strangely bright beneath the shadows.
There was something sad about them.
Something familiar.
Titi couldn't explain why looking at a stranger made her feel like crying.
She reached for him.
He reached out too.
Their fingers almost touched.
Then the moon flickered.
The forest went completely dark.
When the light returned, the boy was farther away.
"Wait!"
Titi ran toward him.
He turned.
"Don't let them find you."
"Who?"
He looked behind her.
Fear appeared in his eyes.
"Titi..."
"What?"
"Wake up."
A loud crack split through the forest.
The trees began shaking.
Something was coming.
Titi turned.
A shadow moved between the trees.
Too tall.
Too fast.
She turned back.
The boy was running toward her.
"Wake up!"
"TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!"
The shadow rushed closer.
The boy reached for her hand.
His fingers closed around hers.
And the instant they touched—
Titi woke up.
---
She sat upright, breathing hard.
Her room was dark.
For a few seconds, she didn't know where she was.
Then she heard her fan, the traffic outside, and a dog barking somewhere in the distance.
Home.
She pressed her hands against her face.
"It was a dream."
She looked at her right hand.
Her fingers tingled.
Slowly, she opened her palm.
A faint silver crescent sat in the middle of it.
Her heart stopped.
"No."
She rubbed it against her bedsheet.
It remained.
She hurried to the mirror and turned on the light.
The tiny silver crescent was still there.
She touched it.
It didn't hurt.
But an image flashed through her mind.
Dark eyes.
A hand reaching for hers.
A voice saying—
Wake up.
Titi pulled her hand away.
"What is wrong with me?"
She checked the time.
3:26 a.m.
She groaned.
Today was supposed to be exciting.
Her first day at university.
New campus.
New classes.
New people.
A new life.
She had promised herself she wouldn't let anything ruin it.
Especially not a stupid dream.
She climbed back into bed and closed her eyes.
Immediately, she saw the moon.
She opened them.
"Nope."
She wasn't sleeping anymore.
---
By morning, the strange mark was gone.
Titi stared at her palm while brushing her teeth.
Nothing.
She turned it over.
Still nothing.
Maybe she'd imagined it.
Then she remembered the boy.
The forest.
His voice.
Her hand in his.
"Forget it."
"Titi!"
Ava shouted from downstairs.
"You're going to be late!"
"I'm coming!"
Titi grabbed her bag and hurried downstairs.
Ava stood near the door with her arms crossed.
"You said you'd be ready twenty minutes ago."
"I was ready."
"You were upstairs."
"That's where my clothes are."
Ava rolled her eyes.
"Come on."
They stepped outside.
The morning air was warm, and Titi finally felt normal again.
Today mattered.
She had spent months imagining university.
The people she'd meet.
The classes.
The freedom.
A fresh beginning.
She didn't know yet that some things followed you wherever you went.
Even dreams.
---
The university was beautiful.
Almost too beautiful.
The main buildings were built from pale stone, with enormous windows and tall arches that made the campus look almost magical.
Titi slowed as she entered the courtyard.
"Wow."
Ava smiled.
"I told you."
"This is actually beautiful."
Students moved everywhere.
For a moment, Titi forgot about the dream.
Then she saw the tower.
It stood at the far end of the courtyard, older than the rest of the university.
Its stone walls were covered in strange carvings.
Titi stopped.
At the top was a symbol.
A crescent moon.
Her stomach tightened.
It looked exactly like the mark that had appeared on her palm.
"Titi?"
She blinked.
"Nothing."
"You stopped."
"I just..."
She stared at the tower.
"Do you know what that symbol means?"
Ava shrugged.
"No idea."
Titi looked away.
Maybe it was coincidence.
It had to be.
She continued walking.
But as she passed beneath the tower, cold crawled over her skin.
Then she heard a whisper.
So quiet she almost thought she'd imagined it.
Titi.
She stopped.
Her heart skipped.
She turned.
Nobody was there.
Ava was already several steps ahead.
"Are you coming?"
Titi looked toward the tower one last time.
Then followed her.
---
The first lecture was crowded.
Titi found a seat near the middle.
Ava sat beside her.
"You look distracted."
"I'm fine."
"You've said 'I'm fine' five times today."
"Maybe I'm tired."
Ava studied her.
"Did you dream about that boy again?"
Titi's pen stopped.
"What boy?"
"The dream boy."
Titi sighed.
"Don't call him that."
"Why?"
"Because it's weird."
"You're the one dreaming about him."
"I don't even see his face."
"Do you know his name?"
Titi shook her head.
"No."
"Then maybe your brain invented him."
"Probably."
But she didn't believe it.
Before Ava could say more, the professor entered.
The lecture began.
Titi tried to concentrate.
She couldn't.
Something kept bothering her.
A feeling that she was waiting for something.
Or someone.
She looked toward the door.
Nothing.
Then the door opened.
Someone walked in.
Titi glanced up.
And forgot what she was doing.
The boy stood near the entrance, speaking quietly to the professor.
He was tall.
Dark-haired.
His expression was calm and unreadable.
There was nothing extraordinary about him.
And yet...
Titi stared.
Her chest tightened.
She didn't know him.
She was certain she had never seen him before.
So why did something inside her whisper—
There you are.
The boy turned.
Their eyes met.
For a second, everything around her seemed distant.
Just silence.
And those eyes.
They reminded her of silver moonlight.
The boy's expression changed too.
His eyes widened.
Then his face became neutral.
He looked away.
Titi blinked.
"What was that?"
Ava leaned closer.
"What?"
"Nothing."
The boy walked down the aisle.
There were several empty seats.
He chose one a few rows away.
Not beside her.
Not behind her.
Just close enough for Titi to notice him.
She tried to focus on the lecture.
She failed.
She glanced at him.
He was writing in his notebook.
She looked away.
A minute later, she looked again.
He was already watching her.
Their eyes met.
He quickly looked down.
Titi frowned.
Why was he staring at her?
And why did she feel like she'd seen him somewhere before?
Not his face.
Something else.
His presence.
His voice when he answered the professor.
The way he tilted his head.
Tiny things that meant nothing.
Yet they made her feel like she was standing at the edge of a memory.
A memory she couldn't reach.
---
When the lecture ended, everyone began packing their things.
Titi closed her notebook.
Ava stood.
"Come on."
Titi slung her bag over her shoulder.
As she turned, she almost walked straight into the mysterious boy.
He stepped aside.
"Sorry."
His voice.
Titi froze.
That voice.
The forest.
The dream.
Her heart began pounding.
He gave her a polite smile.
"Are you okay?"
Titi couldn't answer immediately.
Why did his voice make her feel as though she'd been struck by lightning?
"I'm fine."
The boy nodded.
"Good."
He walked away.
Titi watched him disappear through the doorway.
Ava appeared beside her.
"Okay..."
Titi looked at her.
"What?"
Ava smiled.
"You definitely felt something."
"I did not."
"You absolutely did."
"I just thought his voice sounded familiar."
"From where?"
Titi opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
She didn't know.
That was the problem.
Ava nudged her.
"What's his name?"
"I don't know."
As though the universe had been listening, someone nearby called out.
"Xander!"
Titi froze.
The name struck something inside her.
Not a memory.
Not exactly.
More like a door suddenly appearing in a room she'd never known existed.
Xander.
She didn't know why the name made her heart ache.
She looked down at her palm.
For the briefest second—
the silver crescent appeared.
Then vanished.
Titi stared.
Across the hallway, Xander had stopped walking.
He looked back.
Their eyes met.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither of them smiled.
But something passed between them.
Something neither could explain.
Xander turned away first.
And kept walking.
Titi remained where she was.
She didn't know who he was.
She didn't know why he felt familiar.
She didn't know why the moon had appeared on her palm.
And she certainly didn't know why, when she finally walked outside, she looked up at the bright afternoon sky and saw a faint silver circle where the moon should not have been.
But somewhere far beyond the university walls, hidden beneath the roots of an ancient forest, a bell rang.
Once.
Then twice.
And in a room Titi had never seen before, Xander opened an old book.
On the first page was a drawing of a girl standing beneath a silver moon.
The girl's face was unmistakable.
It was Titi.
Xander stared at the drawing.
Then at the date written beneath it.
His expression hardened.
Because the date was impossible.
It was more than a hundred years old.
And underneath the drawing, written in faded black ink, were seven words:
When the moon remembers, she returns.