Weeping Moon

by Sara Clancy

  Dorothy threw her daughter a quick, reassuring smile, before turning to the Auclair family. “I will need to talk to all of you now. I am a police officer, after all.”

  “Right.” Mr. Auclair sounded somewhat bewildered.

  “I contacted Dr. Aspen,” Dorothy continued. “I figured Adam might want to have a little chat.”

  “Why would I want to talk to Mr. Aspen?” Adam asked innocently.

  While the parents struggled to find a delicate way to say it, Benton answered, “People talk to therapists when scary or sad things happen to them. It’ll make you feel better.”

  “Does talking to him make you feel better?”

  Having adjusted enough to small town living, Benton was not surprised that the boy knew he was in therapy.

  “Yeah,” he shrugged. “As much as any other therapist. He’s a nice enough guy. Give him a chance.”

  Nicole gave Benton a swift, one armed hug. While it was true that he got along with Aspen better than most, he never hid the fact that he hated therapy. The fact that he would swallow his pride for Adam’s sake made her grin.

  “Shut up,” he mumbled out of the corner of his mouth.

  “Never,” she whispered back, relishing the small moment of peace.

  It was a skill that being friends with a Banshee helped her to perfect. Take the good when you could, because you never knew how long it would last.

  “Well then.” Dorothy crouched down in front of Adam. “Why don’t we get some breakfast?”

  Instantly, the child grabbed Benton’s hand.

  Benton knelt down, too. “Do you have a mobile phone?”

  Adam’s bottom lip stuck out as he shook his head.

  “Bet Rick does, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” Adam whispered.

  “Well, I’m sure he has Nicole’s number, and she always picks up. If you need to talk to me, just get your brother to call her, okay?”

  His little, podgy face scrunched up. “Why would I call her to talk to you?”

  Benton shrugged one shoulder. “I’m always with her.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “I am a weird little freak,” Benton grinned. When that accomplished little more than a weak smile, he added, “We’ll meet up later for lunch. Okay?”

  Reluctantly, Adam nodded and released Benton’s hand. Dorothy quickly took hold of it and offered Benton a thankful smile. Straightening up, he looked to Nicole, rolling his eyes when he found a grateful expression on her face, too.

  “Let’s just get this over with.” Benton turned on his heel and stalked towards the RV, calling over his shoulder. “My parents are going to be up soon, and I’m not going to be the one to break it to them that the paranormal is real.”

  Chapter 10

  Benton reached out, grabbed Nicole’s jumping knee, and pushed it down. She threw him a questioning look but kept her leg still. You’d think she was the one facing the inquisition, he thought.

  It was both intimidating and infuriating that none of them seemed to know what they were doing. Their willingness to believe in the paranormal apparently didn’t stem from actual experience. So they followed the path Nicole had caved months ago; blindly assuming that Benton had all the answers. It didn’t do much to smooth over the mutual resentment that was brewing between them.

  “You want us to believe that you have no idea what you are?”

  Benton had only just met Daniel, but he already knew that the old man was going to be his biggest problem. There was pure hatred in the man’s dark eyes. Where it came from, Benton wasn’t sure, but it was clear Daniel’s mind was set.

  “You’re not going to answer?” Daniel snapped.

  “You’ve asked me the same question eight different ways,” Benton said. “My answer hasn’t changed.”

  Nicole squeezed Benton’s hand and flashed her best ‘beauty pageant’ smile. “How can anyone know their history if they’re never told it?”

  “And his parents never told him?” Daniel challenged.

  “They refuse to admit he’s anything other than human,” she insisted. “I’ve seen it myself. They’re giving new meaning to the word ‘denial’.”

  “What do they think his dreams are?”

  “Meaningless,” Benton answered.

  Daniel looked to the other elders in frustration. “Who in their right mind can hear the sounds he makes and believe him human?”

  “White people,” Nicole shrugged. She quickly snuck a glance at him. “No offense.”

  “None taken,” he whispered back.

  It was clear by the grunted intake of breath that the conversation had gone full circle and Daniel was about to ask the same question again. Nicole cut in swiftly.

  “With all due respect, I think we’re not focusing on what’s important. Whatever attacked us is still out there. It’s clearly dangerous.”

  “It left at dawn,” Daniel dismissed. “It obviously can’t hunt during the day.”

  “And what are we going to do at sunset?” Nicole asked, her voice as sweet as honey.

  Hesitating, Daniel looked to the others. They were just as clueless. They don’t know what it is, either, Benton realized. Whatever satisfaction there could have been in that was lost to the knowledge that they had something else to deal with first. And, since no one had mentioned it yet, it seemed it was up to him.

  “Has anyone taken care of the corpse?”

  His question was met with tense, almost disgusted silence. Benton looked at them each in turn.

  “Whatever she is, she killed that guy. Pretty soon, people are going to be getting up. Tourists will be coming and going. Seems like we should make sure he’s out of sight.” Benton shrugged. “You know, might be a bit problematic. I’ve been told children aren’t supposed to see stuff like that.”

  Once more, a few people found it easier to lash out rather than deal with the grisly truth.

  “Oh, that’s something you’ve been told, is it?” Daniel snarked.

  “I’ve been seeing stuff like this since I was younger than Adam.”

  “And it clearly hasn’t affected you,” Daniel replied as he surged to his feet.

  He barked a few orders in a language Benton had heard snippets of before but didn’t understand. Whatever he said was met with a lot of hesitation. Someone replied in the same native tongue, and it was Nicole’s turn to lurch up.

  “Mom isn’t going by herself.”

  “Nicole, be reasonable,” someone who had yet to introduce themselves to Benton said. “She’s a police officer. Who would you send out?”

  “I’ll go with her.”

  “You don’t know what you’re dealing with,” Daniel scoffed.

  “I know about as much as you do,” she snapped without thought. The following moment of regret was squashed under her determination. “I’ve faced these things before. Not exactly like this one, granted, but kind of similar.”

  “Really?” Benton smirked.

  “They were all scary and attacked you first,” she said. Suddenly, she paused. “Why didn’t it?”

  “Sorry?” Benton asked.

  “Why didn’t she attack you outright? You said she hesitated.”

  He shrugged. “She was confused.”

  “About what?”

  “How would I know?”

  “You know, you’ve repeated that sentence so many times that it’s lost its charm,” she said.

  “Then stop asking me-”

  He didn’t get through the words before she waved him off and returned her attention to the elders. “I’ll figure it out later. Making sure that man’s out of sight is more important right now. I’ll need some iron. Ghosts don’t like iron.”

  Daniel heaved a sigh. “And you’ve tested that theory, I suppose?”

  “Yes,” Nicole answered simply.

  That caused a lot more chatter that Benton couldn’t understand. Tone and facial expressions filled in a lot of the blanks for him. Or, at the very least, confirmed what he had been expect
ing. None of them have seen a ghost before. He remembered a moment later not to think too bitterly about that. Before he had come to Fort Wayward, the monsters of his life had been more or less contained to his dreams. Every so often, a very human monstrosity would seep out into his waking life. But nothing like this. When did I start seeing this as the norm?

  “Where?” Wapun finally asked.

  “Mr. Ackerman still lingers in Benton’s barn.” Nicole’s simple tone made it clear that this was her norm as well. Unlike him, she didn’t seem bothered by it. Instead, it boosted her confidence. “Benton and I have also faced the ghosts in the forest along the Highway of the Lost. Did you know that there are tree demons in there? Oh, and we took down two Baykoks.”

  The mention of the Ojibwe legend gave them something to sink their teeth into. A way to ground themselves as she continued to ramble, counting off the monsters on her fingers.

  “There was also a Leanan Sidhe. That’s the one that had the murder museum in the basement. A Dullahan, oh, and let’s not forget the swarm of Sluaghs.”

  “What?” Wapun asked.

  “They’re little flying demons that hide in storms.” She shuttered. “They laugh as they snatch people up and drop them from a great height. That storm a few months ago, the one that almost wiped Fort Wayward off the map? That was the work of the Sluaghs. The whole town would have been wiped off of the map if it wasn’t for us. We can handle this, too.”

  “Why do you keep jumping to ‘we’?” Benton muttered under his breath.

  Nicole threw him a dark look. As dark as she could manage at least. On the great scale of visual intimidation, it ranked somewhere around an angry kitten.

  “You know I’m going to follow you,” he begrudgingly huffed. “But I maintain the right to complain about it.”

  She thought about it. “Fair enough.”

  “Nicole,” Wapun said sharply.

  Benton flinched along with his friend. Nicole’s antics made it easy to forget what was going on. The dread that he had managed to disperse while watching Nicole came surging back when he looked around at the sea of angry faces. And there’s my limit, he thought as he got to his feet.

  “Just remember to bring something to throw over the body,” he told Nicole while stalking the short distance towards the RV’s door. “He’s not going to be a pleasant sight. No reason for you to see that.”

  She didn’t hesitate to follow. “I can deal with it if you can.”

  A sudden slam made them both turn. Daniel’s hand was flat against the small tabletop, and there was a fire in his eyes.

  “We have given neither of you permission to leave.”

  “Hey, if you want to take care of the dead guy, go right ahead,” Benton replied, sweeping one hand out to welcome the man to take the lead.

  To Benton’s surprise, Daniel actually squared his jaw and accepted the offer, shoving his way past Benton to fling the door open. It smacked against the metal siding hard enough to rattle the wall. Wapun huffed like a long-suffering mother and grabbed Benton’s arm.

  “Let’s do this with some measure of intelligence, shall we? We know that the land blessing works to keep it at bay. Perhaps we could use this to our advantage.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Benton said.

  He let both her and Nicole out first. The others held their ground, watching him carefully and without expression. It might have been shy of messed-up priorities but, at that moment, he felt safer out there than in here with them. Jumping down the small flight of stairs, he raised one hand to shield his eyes from the brilliant green haze. Being inside, it had been easy to convince himself that the living serpents of light had been a temporary trick of his mind. The grotesque and the horrifying, he never doubted. Beautiful things, however, he was suspicious about.

  Like the lady in my vision, he thought idly, extending a hand to let a thin strip of pink coil around his palm. Why did Mic have to look like me? It’s just creepy.

  The light weaved playfully around his fingers before taking flight again, rolling like an eel through a placid stream. Watching it go, he recalled just what a perilous situation he was in. It was still early enough that the campsite wasn’t overrun with tourists. Locals and overnight visitors were just starting to get up and sleepily shuffle about. Whatever Dorothy told them did the trick, he thought. Search as he might, he couldn’t find a single worried face. His parents weren’t anywhere to be seen either.

  Coming to stand beside Nicole, he whispered, “I’m starting to develop a deep fear of Rider women.”

  “You only need to be scared if you cross us,” she giggled, careful to keep her voice down. “We’re benevolent masters.”

  He snickered, quickly schooling his features when Daniel snapped around to glare at them.

  “This is a joke to you?”

  “Not a funny one,” Benton shrugged, choking on his breath when Nicole rammed an elbow into his ribs.

  “Sorry,” Nicole said. “We don’t mean to be disrespectful. It’s important to keep up morale, after all.”

  Daniel looked like he had a lot to say in response to that. He kept it to himself when Wapun appeared at Nicole’s other side. The two elders had a silent standoff that the older woman seemed to win. At least for now. A kind but cautious smile played on Wapun’s lips as she looked the teens over.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “I have to,” Nicole said. “I’m kind of the research branch of this partnership. And there was something familiar about that woman.”

  “Repeat that last part,” Benton cut in.

  “Something about her seemed familiar.”

  “And you didn’t mention this earlier because?”

  “There was a lot going on,” she defended. “I’m not used to having so many people in on the secret. It’s actually kind of exhausting getting it all in order.”

  “Do you want to take a nap?”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Actually, I really do. We should probably get this over with first, though.”

  “Yeah, probably,” Benton replied, barely able to hide his smile.

  They were already heading back toward their teepee, which, incidentally, was at the furthest reaches of the protected land. The swirling mist followed them, a thousand different creatures swooping in to investigate them before moving on. In an odd way, Benton found their constant curiosity comforting. They almost seemed playful.

  “So you’ve been through this before?” Wapun asked.

  “Well, not this exactly,” Nicole confessed. Rushing, she added, “But I’m sure we’ll handle it just fine. We always do.”

  Benton felt the scars on his palms itch, along with the one just above his ribs.

  Yeah. All it takes is a little bit of flesh each time.

  Morning dew numbed his bare feet as they crossed the field, the chill almost as biting as the ice that was gathering along his veins.

  I wonder how much they’ll take this time.

  Chapter 11

  The frost that clung to the trampled blades of grass encased her bare feet as they crossed the campsite. Her yoga pants offered little protection from the cold.

  At least they’re cute.

  It was a small comfort as she shivered. The tribal owl print was meant as a bit of a joke. In a perfect example of delusional thinking, Benton still thought that she hadn’t picked up on his new-found love for owls. Not because of their ties to death and Banshees, but because he just loved Bird. She hadn’t been able to resist steadily incorporating the feathered creatures into her aesthetic. Right now, she was kicking herself for not bringing the fluffy sweatpants with a cartoon owl on the thigh.

  A small gust of wind made her shiver violently. Benton kept his body focused straight ahead, even as his eyes snapped over to her. She nipped the tip of her tongue between her teeth, hoping that the small amount of pain would help her focus. Or, at the very least, keep her nerves from showing. Don’t let him see, she ordered herself. This was new ground for b
oth of them, and he was looking to her to see how he should react; if he should go along with this or try and drag them both out of the situation.

  Everything had changed so swiftly. And none of it had been like she had envisioned. She had planned it all out in her head a thousand times, calculating how they could best keep control over the flow of information, sharing what they wanted at a pace that would keep Benton at ease. How she could act as the go-between, smoothing things over as they went and helping both sides navigate the other. Reality was just a jerk. Nothing had happened as it should have. The elders were suspicious, Benton was resentful, and she was left trying to figure out how to get back on track before one side just decided to burn the bridge and be done with it.

  Meeting Benton’s eyes, she smiled slightly at him, trying to be the picture-perfect example of calm composure. He didn’t return the smile, a clear sign that he knew something was off.

  Deal with the ghost first, she told herself. Daniel won’t let go of the idea that Benton’s a threat until he sees him in action. So, we’ll kill the ghost, Benton can strike a heroic pose, and we’ll have a nice conversation over cookies.

  Agreeing with herself that this was an awesome idea, and utterly refusing to think further into how it could go wrong, she felt a boost of renewed confidence. It didn’t take long for Benton to notice the subtle change and lift a questioning eyebrow. Her smile grew in response. It was a little insulting that this only made him more suspicious.

  Crowding a little closer to her side, he whispered in her ear, “So, what’s the plan here?”

  “Walk quickly and wield the power of a positive attitude.”

  “Huh. So, this is how I die,” he muttered. “I had a good run.”

  She huffed. “You’re just a Negative-Nelly today, aren’t you?”

  His second eyebrow joined the first in migrating up to his hairline. “Negative-Nelly?”

  “I stand by my statement.”

  “Congratulations. When did you become a grandmother?”

  “Oh, shush,” she dismissed. “It’s a perfectly acceptable insult.”

  “For people in an older age bracket,” he muttered.