Reflection of the Full Moon

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. However, the gaurd was not in his office. It wasn't uncommon for them to just leave the prisoners unattented to for hours. Not even for simple human needs like meals or bathroom breaks. The cells didn't have toilets in them. These prisoners are lucky if the guards bothered to feed them once a day. These were such terrible conditions ever since the ridiculous "Anti-occult." movement took place and somehow managed to make it's way into politics and then made it's way into congress. Iva used to never have to worry about nonsensical political matters at a tender age like sixteen. But now, she must adapt and survive.

Now, "unholy ones" must be detained and immediately put to death by the end of the week. The government didn't bother to waste resources on those who will only live a maximum of a few days. What a ridiculous new law and what was more ridiculous is that very simple things like owning some shiny jewlery or brewing some tea can get you arrested. Sleeping all day and being out at night can get you arrested for suspected vampirism. "Abnormal" hair growth despite one's genetics can also get you into trouble for suspected lyncanthropy. Iva used to enjoy staying up late and watching harry potter movies until the movies and books were not only banned but mass burned.

This strange new law and policies took place after more and more "supernatural" sightings were confirmed. There were thirty new big foot sightings in the last year alone. After the sightings came the vampire attacks. There were bodies being found every few weeks it seemed and the discriptions were all the same. The victim was drained of blood and usually mutilated to the point of unrecognition. The supernatural has been confirmed and yet skeptics still exist which was a saving grace in a sense. The common denominator seemed to be that the ones being accused and executed were almost always women. This made Iva and many others very suspicious that this entire new policy was another nonsensical way to control and kill as many women as they didn't like.

Iva wiped the tears from her pale grey eyes as an image of a woman formed in her mind's eye. The woman's face felt familiar but she couldn't place where she knew this woman from. She had long wavy red hair and green eyes. She wore a plum colored winter dress with a long cranberry coat and simple white heels. This woman looked to Iva with a warm smile that quickly turned into a cautionary look as she pointed towards the guard making his way down the corridor. He stood in front of Iva's cell dressed in his black perfectly pressed uniform. His face was hardened and cold with unforgiving dark brown eyes.

He pounded on the bars of Iva's cell to make her jump. Iva not only jumped in startlement but let out a frightened yelp that seemed to amuse the guard."Did I frighten you, sweetheart?" He smiled a condescending smile. His teeth where crooked just like he was. Iva tried not to gag at the creepy way he said "sweetheart." She couldn't manage to open her mouth without making a gag noise so she gave a nod instead. His eyes wandered at Iva from top to bottom as he reached out to touch one of her strawberry blonde French braids.

"So lovely..." He smiled.

Iva internally recoiled at the grown man seemingly making passes at her, a sixteen-year-old child! In her peripheral vision she can see the red haired woman's rageful look towards this man. Who is this woman? For now, Iva thought of her as a spirit guide.

"I'm Marcus." The guard smiled. Gross! This man was at least twenty-seven. Iva didn't say a word mostly out of fear, but partly because if she opened her mouth she was going to throw up right on this man's boots. It's not like he wouldn't deserve it and so much worse. "Oh, don't be shy, pretty girl." he winked. "What's your name?"

"Ivanna..." She finally said after perhaps a minute of silence.

"Well, Miss Ivanna, you must be starving. Why don't we go to the cafeteria and get you something to eat, shall we?" Marcus almost cooed at Iva. He either read her mind or heard her stomach growl loudly. As tempting as the thought of food was Iva couldn't help but fear for her safety as women are often violated in these prisons right before they're killed. The red haired woman gave Iva a knowing look and nodded. Iva gave a tiny nod back and pulled her black knit cap down to conceal where she was looking.

Marcus turned to see where or who Iva was nodding at but he saw nobody. In the split second that his back was turned Iva delivered one swift hard kick right in his groin. He crumpled to the floor after a very loud yet high pitched screech. Iva delivered a few kicks to his ribs for good measure. "I'm sixteen!" She growled and spat in his face. Marcus was in too much pain to call back at her as he lied groaning in agony on the floor like the pathetic thwarted predator he was.

Iva quite literally ran for her life up the stairs. Her senses were screaming at her but her flight was always stronger than her fight. "GET BACK HERE!" a second guard shouted. "STOP THAT GIRL!" a third shouted. Soon there were gunshots fired. Iva dared not stop running. "THERE'S NO ROOM FOR DEMONS LIKE YOU IN THIS COUNTRY, UNHOLY BITCH!" More gunshots were fired as alarms were blaring clearly now alerting everyone that someone's escaping.

The fact that Iva was a fast runner was about the only thing that saved her life. The ability to run like the wind was a lifesaving skill that Iva acquired unknowingly. She didn't have time to think about how it would be if she had any other hobby instead of running. If her hobby was cooking or landscaping, she didn't think she'd make it out of there alive. A burning pain shot from her shoulder to her entire arm. She had been hit. Iva gripped her shoulder tight grimacing in pain as she felt blood ooze from her wound and in between her fingers now staining her track jacket.

She quickly held her breath and went still after hearing footsteps from above her. She had been running for so far she had no idea where she absentmindedly ended up. It looked like it used to be a warehouse or some sort of distribution center except now it was missing a roof and about most of its walls. With the pain of her gunshot wound, trying to settle her breathing was next to impossible. She could hear two men talking from the floor above her.

"Are you sure she went this way, Fredrickson?"

"She had to have gone this way! There were bullets flying everywhere else!"

"But, did anyone actually see this kid go inside here? What if she's already dead? We should go look for the body."

"I don't know, Jones. I'm tired and this is my fifth night in a row with no overtime pay. I don't care enough about this brat to keep looking. Let's just say she's dead."

"What's the story on this kid, anyway? What's she accused of doing? Witch? Vampire? Did she read an Anne Rice novel? What is it?"

Jones rolled his eyes at his collegue. "As far as I know she's an accused witch or psychic or something. She sees stuff. Her dad moved her here from Russia about three years ago. The mom is dead"

"Is that right?" Fredrickson lit up his cigar.

"How should I know? This entire new system is balls if you ask me." Jones sighed. "The higher ups and congress know damn well it's not possible. I think it's all a distraction for something."

"With monsters? How freakin' stupid does that sound?!" Fredrickson exclaimed.

"I don't know. It wasn't up to me. I didn't vote for any of these delusional wackos in congress now."

"Jones, you're gonna get yourself killled talking like tha--JONES!!!"

Fredrickson stood in horror as his colleague lied dead on the ground with a bullet hole in between his eyes. He immediately drew his weapon out darting around for a possible assailant. He saw a red laser pointed directly at his heart. Fredrickson stopped in his tracks as his eyes darted around still unable to find who was holding the sniper.

"You have thirty seconds to get the hell out of here before I shoot!" A man's voice shouted in the distance. Iva was relieved to hear a familiar voice. "Papa!" She whispered loudly and quickly clasped a hand over her mouth.

"Who's there?!" Fredrickson shouted back at the voice. The sniper man wasted no time after that as Fredrickson's body met the ground with a resounding "thud!"

"Iva! It's okay now! You're safe!" The sniper man who was actually in fact Iva's father Yuri made his way from where he hid to where the metal staircase where he thought he saw his daughter nearby. "Iva!" Yuri called out along with something in Russian that translated roughly to, "Are you here?"

"Papa!" Iva weakly exclaimed from underneath the staircase with tears in her eyes. The pain from her bullet wound was too much for her tiny body to withstand. She sobbed from fear and physical pain. "My Iva!" Yuri rushed down under the staircase to where his injured daughter was hiding. His military boots stomping and shaking the metal staircase. "Oh, my Iva!" Yuri's paternal instincts were in overdrive as he picked up his daughter in his arms as soon as he saw her wound. "Did they do that to you?"

Iva nodded and sniffled.

"You're gonna be okay." Yuri gave an order into his radio and within the hour a helicopter arrived.

"Commander!" A soldier shouted from the chopper to Yuri. "We must hurry! There's more of these idiot rogue vigilante cops coming this way!"

"Papa.." Iva groaned softly.

"Shhh, it's okay my darling. Everything's gonna be okay.." Yuri blinked back tears as his mind went back to the terrible day a firing squad was ordered to execute his wife. His beautiful Sofia. He refused to allow his only child to meet the same fate.

"Papa..it hurts." Iva whimpered holding her shoulder. After Yuri and Iva were properly loaded into the helicopter, Yuri removed Iva's jacket revealing a nasty gash. "We need to remove that bullet." He said to another soldier. "

"Commander, we can't go to any of the hospitals here! They all know you! And they know who and what your daughter is!

Yuri cursed under his breath in Russian. "Let's go to one of the safehouses! We need immediate supplies, and my daughter must be safe!" Iva cried and whimpered loudly as a tourniquet was wrapped around her wound to slow the bleeding. "Shhh, it's okay, darling." Yuri whispered gently as he stroked his daughter's hair. "I promise, you'll be safe, Iva."

After the seemingly long way to the safehouse, Yuri hoisted Iva up again and carried her safely inside.

"I forgot about this place." Yuri murmured. This particular safehouse held some nostalgia as it was filled with Sofia's favorite pieces of home decor. It was discovered after she was buried. It's the very first safehouse that Yuri has made into a home. Iva visited a few times as a little girl but nobody ever thought this is how she would return.

"Commander, what's with that mirror in the middle of this place? It's giving me the absolute creeps!" A third soldier said inspecting the large and intricately decorated antique mirror. Yuri just shook his head. "That thing has been in Sofia's family for decades. Her mother used to say it's a family heirloom or some mess like that. She expects me to believe an ugly piece of junk like that was supposedly hung in Rasputin's mansion."

"Damn. It's that old, huh?" The soldier who was also trained as a medic said gathering his supplies to treat Iva's wound.

"I guess."

"Okay, darling.. this is going to hurt some but we really need to get that bullet out of you."

"OPEN UP!!" A swarm of authorities had the safehouse surrounded.

Iva's heart hammered in her chest as she instinctly backed away from the door. She screamed as she saw the woman's face again but this time in the mirror and she reached out her hand. Stunned and dumbfounded, Iva reached back and was pulled into the mirror.

"Iva!" Yuri cried out! He glanced at the woman taking his daughter inside the mirror and went as white as a sheet of paper."

"Sofia.."

Suddenly the door was busted open as a swarm of gunshots blasted the place. A stray bullet met the mirror and shattered it to pieces."

"SOFIA! IVA!" Yuri screamed before he too met a stray bullet.