A Betrayal Under the Hollow Moon

Halloween night had always carried an air of mystery, but this year, something about it felt off. The air was colder than usual, the kind that crept under your skin and settled in your bones. The streets were alive with the laughter of children and the flickering glow of jack-o'-lanterns, but to Arthur, the festive lights cast more shadows than warmth.

The party was in full swing, the thumping bass rattling the walls of the house. Inside, bodies pressed together in chaotic movements, the air thick with the scent of sweat, alcohol, and the sickly-sweet aroma of autumn candles. Arthur moved through the crowd, his mind distant despite the conversations swirling around him. Megan had been acting strange for weeks now, and though he had tried to ignore it, the feeling gnawed at the back of his mind like a whisper just out of reach.

Then he noticed—Megan and Jeff were gone.

A sharp prickle of unease ran down his spine, a cold contrast to the heat of the packed room. At first, he told himself it was nothing. Maybe they had stepped outside for air, maybe they were just in another room. But a hollow sense of dread had already begun to bloom in his chest, spreading its cold fingers through him.

He moved through the house, the laughter and chatter around him blurring into white noise. Something wasn't right. He could feel it in the marrow of his bones. The deeper into the house he went, the more distant the noise of the party became, as if he were stepping out of one reality and into another.

And then he found them.

At the end of a dimly lit hallway, half-shrouded in darkness, Megan and Jeff stood pressed together, their bodies tangled in an embrace far too intimate to be mistaken. Her hands in his hair. His fingers gripping her waist. Lips locked. Moving.

Arthur stopped breathing. The world stopped spinning. He couldn't move. Couldn't think. His vision tunneled, narrowing on the scene before him as a sharp, visceral pain tore through his chest.

He should have felt anger. Rage. Betrayal. But instead, a cold wave of something far more terrifying washed over him—

Fear.

Because when Megan finally pulled away from Jeff and turned to face him, her eyes—those warm, brown eyes he had fallen in love with—were wrong. They weren't hers. They glowed, faintly, unnaturally, like embers smoldering in the dark. And for a single, horrific moment, he swore the shadows around her flickered, twisting unnaturally against the dim light.

His stomach twisted violently. The air in the hallway felt thick, suffocating, pressing in on him from all sides. The way she looked at him—it was as if she wasn't surprised. As if she had been expecting him to find them.

And then she smiled.

A slow, curling smile that held none of the warmth he once knew. A smile that belonged to someone else.

Something else.

A sharp, shuddering breath escaped his lips, his body finally catching up to his mind. He stumbled back, his legs moving before his brain could process what was happening.

And then he ran.

Laughter followed him—Megan's laughter, high and sharp, ringing in his ears like the echo of something ancient and cruel. Jeff's voice called after him, but it was distant, lost beneath the pounding of his heart. The world outside was a blur of flickering streetlights and grinning jack-o'-lanterns as he fled through the quiet streets, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

He didn't stop running. Not until his legs gave out beneath him, sending him sprawling onto the cold pavement of an empty alleyway. His palms scraped against the rough ground, but he barely registered the pain. His entire body was shaking, his breath uneven and shallow. And then, the sickness overtook him.

He retched violently, emptying his stomach onto the asphalt, his entire body convulsing from the shock of what he had seen—what he had felt.

For a long time, he stayed there, his forehead pressed against the cold ground, his breath coming in shallow gasps. The night stretched on, silent except for the distant hum of the town still alive with celebration. But for Arthur, the world he had known had already ended.

Something had changed tonight. Something irreversible.

And deep in his gut, in a place far beyond logic and reason, he knew one thing for certain—

That was not Megan.