CHAPTER TWO

Luna

I take a deep breath and revolve slowly in an arc, not more than 90 degrees, the man or maybe woman standing before me looks on, am going to assume the person is male because of their build and stance, as I slowly move I hope he’ll turn as I turn but he’s so still, almost as if he’s dead or something, he is definitely a predator. He looks to be way over 6ft 5inches, his shoulders are absolutely broad they are like helicopter blades, his hands are scarred and would have been a beautiful shade of olive, if not for the fact that three of his fingers are blackened as if he dipped them in tar and it refused to come off, it's oily and gives me a rather queasy feeling inside, I avoid looking at it for long.

He’s in complete black, and not the fashionable type either, the material looks like wool, heavy wool and from the smell of it, it hasn’t seen better days in a very long time, his boots look like what an armored car would look like if it were made as a boot, it seems heavy and able to do maximum damage, I really don’t want to get anywhere near his feet.

His face is covered with a thin mesh that looks like it is made out of silver, it sort of shines in the moonlight. The man seems content to just stand there for all eternity, but I have also seen how fast he can move when motivated so I would rather be careful before making any sudden moves.

This is why I don’t want to turn my back on the man standing before me, I am so curious right now that the temptation to look around and find the person talking to me is rather fierce, also all of a sudden I realize how foolish I have been, I should never have left the house without alerting someone, it should have occurred to me that there may be more than one intruder seeking to gain entry into our home.

As it is, our home is about a mile away from our closest neighbor the Townsend family whose son, Frank is my best friend, we were born on the same day, only hours apart, we grew up together, his family is as close-knit as ours is, although his dad is one hella, scary dude, I mean he’s really a softie on the inside but you’d never know that by looking at him.

Slowly I back away from the guy in front of me, my body instinctively drops even more to the ground, making me a smaller and harder to reach target with red painted on my back. As it is I am practically vibrating with adrenaline, enough energy, in fact, to enable me to fly if I so wish, although I’d fly if ever pigs could.

‘Luna? Is that you? Come here my child let me look at you’ the voice says again, its old sounding, like a dry brittle piece of driftwood, somehow though there is a feeling inside telling me to go to the owner of the voice, that they can be trusted, the adrenaline pumping through my veins at this very moment is whispering a different song, flight or fight. If I stay here any longer than I already have, then the choice will be made for me and I would lose all forward momentum.

I think to myself, I am not a coward, so I stop for a mere second, and pitch my voice slightly lower almost as if am talking to me myself, I take a chance and glance around me warily before turning back to face the one standing in front of me, he has drifted closer to me in the short time that it took for me to turn my eyes away from him ‘who the hell are you and how do you know my name? I challenge him as I stand straighter, brace my feet and angle my body closer to the door; I am only about a meter and a half away from the entrance.

‘You know me’ the person says in the same brittle voice, this time though I can actually see the man’s mouth move through the netting on his face, that’s when I realize that he’s the only one here, there isn’t another intruder as of yet and it’s his voice I’ve been hearing.

However, it seems so strange because he’s standing in front of me but when I hear his voice, it is coming from behind me as if maybe he’s the one pitching it that way if he that then I am in a more dangerous situation than I thought, but, there is no reason to let on what I know what I already know, besides if his mouth is moving and he’s doing the talking then it is him.

This gives me a bit more strength to stand strong, and face down this stranger who seems to be familiar with my name and my person. This isn’t someone I know though, because I have never seen him before so I tell him, ‘stop lying I do not know you, now, you would do well to answer my question properly before I alert more people to your presence here, also if you are gonna lie and say that I know you then unveil yourself! And let’s get this over with’ I yell at him, I’m hoping my voice carried and someone from my family would have heard me already.

The man takes a step closer to me his blackened fingers twitching like a dying worm, the sight of those fingers fill me with dread and I take two steps back while trying to ignore them, which has me practically hugging the door now.

This is a great thing because I know now that I can at least get in now as I want. He makes a show of slowly reaching up to his head to pull down the hood of his cape; he is so completely bald that you can practically see the moon reflected there. Then he says to me, ‘you may not know this face, but you know me, and I urge you to remember’ he rasps as though gasping for his last breath. To this, I say nothing, the queasy feeling on my inside is increasing and I feel like my decision to speak and engage this crazy person is horribly stupid and I might end up dead with no one knowing what happened to me.

It takes some effort on my part to stop this chain of thought so I can focus on the man, when I look at him again, he pulls the mesh away from his face, it is definitely silver, then he drops it like he can’t possibly care what happens to it. When he lifts his face to me, I gasp, not in recognition or anything like that but rather in actual shock, he is incredibly beautiful, so beautiful there are no words to describe it, it’s like he has the perfect combination of parts, his eyebrows are full, defined and his nose is straight and rather feminine. His lips are a work of art altogether, the color of fresh plums.

His skin is smooth and glassy like, there is no discernable imperfection there and his, wow his eyes are a marvelous thing, it’s the most vibrant shade of green I have ever seen, so green you’d think you are looking at green grass at the height of summer, however, rather than the warmth brought by summer, his eyes are cold, the darkest, coldest winter night, the winter cold that steals life and all it was made for. The kind of cold that freezes without remorse, a coldness that leeches all joy and life from those unfortunate to be caught in it.

At this moment all I want is to be safely inside the house, preferably surrounded by my family, I don’t want to be here anymore, because the longer I am here the more I can feel something insidious from his creature, not sure I can call him a man anymore. There is something incredibly weird with him, something intrinsically wrong and something absolutely dangerous that I know for certain, without the shadow of a doubt that if I stay here any longer I may die. I make a hurried move for the door handle because now the adrenaline is fading and fear, definitely fear has set in, am beginning to panic, I just want to get away from him.

He takes a step toward me and it’s like he’s covered half the distance between us because now, he is practically looming over me, I make a sound deep in my throat, it’s a purely animal sound of deep fear, I am choking on it, my eyes are getting teary and blurry, my knees are shaking, my stomach is roiling and my head, I feel like there is a creature living and breathing in my head, trying to crawl out and take flight.

‘I have been with you your whole life, I am the thoughts in your head, the voice in your heart, I am the dream that you see, I am your need come to life, I am the blood that sustains you, the hunger that you feel, every time you see something you want I am that greed that turns you green, I am your beating heart, I am the voice of the dark, I am your father! I gave you life, you must come to me! Luna!