The road stretched before her, an endless ribbon of golden dust, weaving between the meadows where wildflowers swayed in the warm breath of the wind. The sky, a vast ocean of blue silk, bore witness to the silent pact between the land and the girl who rode through it—Luna.
She wasn’t just pedaling toward a destination; she was running, fleeing, seeking. The past clung to her like an unwanted echo, whispering truths she no longer wanted to hear. But in this moment, with her hands gripping the worn handlebars of her bike and the summer sun painting her skin in gold, she felt something dangerously close to free.
Dressed in a white crop top and barely-there black shorts, Luna’s body was a symphony of motion—taut muscles flexing with each push of the pedals, hair whipping like dark ribbons in the breeze. She had always felt more alive in the open, where the world stretched far enough to make her forget the weight she carried.
She stopped. Not because she was tired, but because the silence behind her felt too loud. Setting her foot on the dry earth, she leaned against her bicycle, allowing the moment to catch up to her. A cigarette dangled between her fingers, unlit, a habit she had never committed to but kept close as a reminder—of someone, of something.
Then, she sensed him.
Not in the way one notices a passing stranger. No, this was something deeper, a presence that sent a shiver skimming along her spine, igniting the part of her that had learned to recognize the electricity in the air before a storm.
A slow turn of her head.
There he was.
Standing at the edge of the field, where the wild grass met the forgotten dirt road, a figure carved from shadow and heat. He leaned against a rusting fence post, his arms crossed, eyes hooded beneath the mess of unruly dark hair. His name? Kai.
“You’re far from home, Luna.”
His voice was smooth, the kind that had once wrapped around her like velvet and now only brought a sharp edge of memory. She exhaled, rolling her shoulders as if she could shake off the weight of him.
“Maybe I don’t have one anymore,” she murmured, flicking the cigarette between her fingers, playing with the unspoken challenge in her tone.
Kai pushed off the fence, his movements deliberate, measured. The kind of control that masked something far more dangerous underneath. The kind of control that had once set her world on fire.
“You always had a home, Luna,” he said, stepping closer. “You just never stopped long enough to realize it.”
She smirked, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Sounds poetic.”
“Sounds true.”
A gust of wind whipped between them, lifting strands of her hair like silk ribbons, making the space between them feel impossibly charged. She could still remember the nights they had spent beneath skies just like this, tangled in heat, lost in whispered promises that never lasted past the dawn.
Kai glanced at the bike, then back at her, something dark and unreadable flickering in his gaze. “Running again?”
Luna let out a slow breath. “I don’t run. I ride.”
He chuckled, low and knowing. “And where does this ride take you?”
“Somewhere quiet. Somewhere no one knows my name.”
Kai’s lips curled into something between a smile and a warning. “You think I don’t know your name?”
A sharp pulse in her chest. Because that was the thing about Kai—he didn’t just know her name. He knew her.
Luna clenched her jaw, pressing the cigarette against the bike’s seat, watching as the ghost of a past flame crumbled into nothing but dust. “Then maybe I should go further.”
Kai took another step, close enough now that she could feel the heat of him, that familiar scent of leather, salt, and something untamed. “You can try, Luna. But we both know… I always catch up.”
The sun hung low, stretching their shadows into something tangled and infinite.
And in that moment, Luna knew—this was never just a ride. It was a chase.
And she wasn’t sure she wanted to escape.
