The Rebirth
There was no warning.
One moment, the skies were clear. The next, the sun dimmed, then vanished, blotted out by a sudden, silent eclipse. It wasn't on any forecast. No scientists had predicted it. It came like a whisper, then cloaked the world in shadow.
In two cities hundreds of miles apart, two cries pierced the silence at once.
Two girls were born, minutes apart. One in the busy heart of a city hospital. The other in a quiet birthing center near the woods.
Ivy's cry was strong, defiant. She kicked the air as though it had wronged her. Her mother, a nurse on the night shift, stared in awe at the timing, right at the moment the sun disappeared, her daughter arrived.
Julia's cry was softer. Her eyes, wide and ancient, seemed to see something invisible to others. Her father shivered when she looked at him, like she saw straight through him, past his bones, to something older.
No one understood it then, but something forbidden had taken place.
A bond, lost long ago, had been born again.
The world continued. People forgot the eclipse. Science explained it away. But deep beneath the fabric of things, something stirred.
The natural was no longer natural.
What was once stopped... had now returned.
---
Fifteen Years Later
"I can't believe this, Mona. She said what?" Ivy sat cross-legged in her bedroom, a mirror filled with scattered makeup before her. A brush danced between her fingers as she dabbed gold eyeshadow onto her lids, phone cradled between her cheek and shoulder.
"You heard me," Mona sighed. "Julia's not coming. She says she's feeling weird again. Cold feet, maybe. I don't know. I told you she wasn't the type for this kind of gathering."
Ivy groaned, slamming her brush down.
"And you're her twin or her babysitter? Force her! I'm not doing this without both of you. I busted my ass for those tickets. And my mom's on night shift, which means this is our night."
Mona paused. "Ivy… she's not just being dramatic. She's been having... episodes lately."
Ivy rolled her eyes. "Oh please, what kind of episodes? 'I saw the moon blink at me' kind of episodes?"
There was a beat of silence.
"...You're not that far off," Mona whispered.
Ivy stopped mid-motion. "What?"
Mona sighed. "She's been seeing things. Having dreams. Sometimes she wakes up and doesn't remember going to sleep. Like... in different clothes. I found her outside once. Barefoot. Eyes open, but not there."
That unsettled Ivy, but she quickly buried it under sarcasm.
"Sounds like sleepwalking mixed with teenage angst. Bring her anyway."
Before Mona could argue, Ivy hung up.
Outside, the moon sat a little too still. The stars above flickered—watching.
---
Later That Night
The party was a sensory overload, music pulsing, lights flashing like camera shutters in a thunderstorm. Ivy thrived in it, moving through the crowd like she owned it. She had always felt drawn to the energy of nights like this. Nights that felt bigger than themselves.
But something was different tonight.
When Mona and Julia finally arrived, the air shifted. Julia looked pale, almost translucent. Her eyes, always quiet and reflective, now seemed distant, stormy.
Then Ivy turned and saw her.
Their eyes met.
Everything stopped.
The music dropped away. The crowd faded. The world slowed to a crawl.
And in that moment, just for a second, they heard a voice. Not aloud. Not spoken.
It wasn't in words.
It was in feeling.
"You are not alone."
Julia stumbled backward, clutching her head. Ivy gasped like the air had been pulled from her lungs. The moment passed, but they both stood frozen, staring.
Mona grabbed Julia. "We're leaving."
"No," Ivy said, still breathless. "She felt it too. Didn't you?"
Julia didn't answer. She turned and disappeared into the crowd, leaving Ivy standing there, a chill crawling up her spine.
---
The Awakening
The days that followed were stranger still.
Ivy started dreaming in double, memories that weren't hers, emotions that came from someone else. She'd feel panic out of nowhere. Grief. Visions of fire. Water. A bridge stretching into nothing.
Julia, meanwhile, began drawing. Her notebooks filled with symbols she didn't understand. Eyes. Doors. Spirals.
And a shape she kept seeing: two girls standing on opposite sides of a cracked mirror.
Mona grew scared. "What's happening to you?"
But Julia wouldn't listen or even answer her, she was so focused in her drawing, this scared Mona so much that she had to tell her parents, she couldn't keep it a secret any more..
---
The Stranger
He first appeared near the park, tall, cloaked, old eyes in a young face. He watched them for days before speaking. He approached Ivy first, one afternoon at the car pack of their school...
"You feel it, don't you?" he said.
"I feel like I'm being stalked," Ivy replied.
"You were born under the eclipse. As was she. That bond hasn't existed for centuries."
"Who are you?"
"A watcher. Of bridges. Of broken rules."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"It means," he said, leaning closer, "that you and the other girl are more than just connected. You are part of something that once almost tore this world apart. A soul split in two. And now, the bridge between you is waking again. What was once forbidden... is trying to return."
Ivy shook her head in frustration, eyes squeezed shut, a low growl rising in her throat.
"What the hell?" she snapped, her voice echoing into the silence.
But when she opened her eyes… the man was gone. Just like that, vanished, like smoke on the wind.
Her breath caught, heart racing, the eerie quiet swallowing her thoughts.
Then, tap. A gentle touch on her shoulder.
Ivy spun around.
It was Julia. Smiling.
Ivy flinched backward. "Get off me, you freak! I thought you didn't want to talk to me anymore. So why are you here?"
As the words flew out of her mouth, Ivy's gaze drifted past Julia. Mona was approaching from a distance, walking fast, like she already knew trouble had arrived.
Julia exhaled slowly, visibly shaken. Her voice dropped low, almost a whisper. "I've been sick. A lot's been happening, crazy stuff. And last night, I had a dream about you. It was… terrifying."
She looked Ivy dead in the eyes. "I couldn't calm down until I saw you. I had to know you were okay."
But Ivy barely flinched. The memory of that night, the party, the betrayal, was still fresh.
"You left me," she muttered under her breath, arms crossed tight against her chest.
Julia's sincerity hung in the air, but Ivy wasn't ready to catch it. Not yet. Not with Mona still closing in.
And not with so many questions left unanswered.