Secrets of the Moon

by Kristy Centeno

  “What the…?” Something or someone lurked just outside my bedroom window.

  When I pulled the curtain aside, I expected to see every form of evil standing there, but my eyes settled on nothing but darkness. My eyes scoured the area from left to right and up and down, but still there was nothing visibly out of place. The entire ordeal with the beast, and now my nighttime stalker, was strange and it became even more bizarre because I could sense whatever it was looking at me, but I couldn’t see it.

  I could feel its eyes roaming my face like a soft caress, and that frightened me because what kind of being can have such an impact on a person? A flash of movement crossed my line of vision and I could clearly make out the outline of a man, darting from behind one tree to another. This time, I didn’t feel any fear—no—I was pissed that this person would bother toying with me like that.

  Without pausing to think rationally, I grabbed my cell phone, put on a pair of socks and my slippers, and quietly made my way downstairs. I searched through the downstairs closet for the metal bat I knew my father kept there. Once I had it, I exited the house through the back door with bat and cell phone in hand. This was by far the stupidest idea I’d ever had, but to give myself credit, I wasn’t thinking clearly. Anger was fueling my sudden show of bravado so I went along with the instinct. The thought that I could very possibly be killed by a stalker or be eaten alive never crossed my mind, at least not at that moment.

  Wearing nothing but pajamas and slippers, I headed toward the wooded area where I’d heard the snapping sounds coming from. Once outside, the noise was even louder, and I began to wonder why Vicki and the girls didn’t hear it.

  The moment I stepped beyond the line of trees and left the safety of my home behind, I felt the very terrifying feeling of impending doom crawl all over me and almost swallowed my tongue in fear. Still, no amount of fright stopped me from continuing on. I kept walking even when that little voice inside my head kept nagging at me to stop being stupid and run like hell back home.

  The extent of the darkness surrounding me should have been enough to give me pause, since I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face, but oddly enough it wasn’t. Realizing that I was out in the open with no protection but my metal bat, I held it close to my chest in case the opportunity to hit something presented itself, and continued to follow the ruckus until I was certain I knew where it was coming from. By that point, I hadn’t realized how far I’d actually walked until I noticed that when I looked back, I couldn’t see my house.

  Despite the fact that I decided to continue without a flashlight, I was still surprised when I tripped after stepping over what I assumed was a log. In order to avoid serious damage to my face I had to use my hands to stop my head from making contact with the solid ground as I went down, hard. In the process of falling like an idiot, I dropped both the bat and my cell phone. I was unaware of where it rolled, since I didn’t see where it landed.

  After the initial sting of the embarrassment wore off, I softly chided myself for not bringing a flashlight with me. What was I thinking going into the woods without one, anyway?

  Well, there lay the problem. I wasn’t thinking. Luckily for me I didn’t get hurt, but I did start to feel like a fool for placing myself in such a dangerous position. Annoyed, I pushed myself off the ground and started dusting off some of the dirt and leaves clinging to my hands. They burned a little and I figured they had to be scraped or at the very least scratched. But I wasn’t hurt badly.

  Common sense finally kicked in and I started to realize this wasn’t a very brilliant idea to begin with. And now that I had fallen and most likely injured my hands, it was better to just head home and forget about stalking my stalker. I placed one hand on the log I’d tripped over and used it as a lever to help push my body up. I rose and glanced around when I noted how eerily quiet my surroundings suddenly got. Unnerved, I noticed now what I hadn’t before. The stillness of the night was damn near overwhelming and I couldn’t help but tremble in fear.

  A grunt, soft and determined, broke the quietness surrounding me and I jumped at the sound. It sounded a little too close for comfort. Petrified, I went down on my knees again and started to search for the bat. Another grunt urgently pressed me to find the weapon before I got my head torn off. Desperate now, I patted the ground, trying to feel for the bat.

  Damn it! Where is the stupid bat?

  It took me several long, terrifying minutes to locate it, since it had rolled a couple of feet away from where I was kneeling. Bat in hand, I stood facing the direction the grunts were coming from and gripped it so tightly my knuckles hurt. The grumbles got louder and closer as whatever being—beast or man—approached.

  I slowly backed away from the noise. By facing forward, I figured that I had a better chance of seeing whatever or whoever rushed toward me. Hopefully, it would give me enough time to either smash his head in or run away.

  I didn’t stop moving until I felt the solid form of a tree behind me. Despite my fear of the unknown, I did find that wall of bark behind me oddly comforting. I realized then that I had no choice but to face whatever was about to happen, and that frightened me. When I’d stepped out on my own tonight I wasn’t afraid, I was angry, and that anger helped me move forward. But now I was shaking in terror. A few drops of sweat broke the surface of my skin as I listened to the disturbing grunts the cool night breeze carried toward me.

  Even if I wanted to run, I didn’t think I could. My legs were stationary, seemingly glued to the dirt beneath my slippers, and my body stopped responding altogether.

  My eyes darted from left to right and back again as I tried to locate the perpetrator of the grunting noises I kept hearing. The sound seemed to come from all over the place.

  Not good! Not good! Where is it?

  Just seconds ago, it seemed to have been my right, but now the noises seemed to emanate from all around. I pressed my back further against the tree, hoping it would swallow me whole.

  Where the hell is my cell phone? Jesus! I dropped it too!

  I was just seconds away from being either violently killed or mauled and I had no way of letting anyone know what happened to me.

  Think, Marjorie, think!

  This was what happened when you have no survival skills at all. No matter how much I tried to think up a logical solution to my dilemma, my mind just stayed as blank as a sheet of paper.

  When a twig snapped a few feet from where I stood, I forgot about everything else and concentrated instead on my surroundings, paying close attention to the trees just a few feet away. Whatever was approaching was doing it quickly and I knew there wasn’t going to be enough time to think about an escape plan, so I gripped the bat hard, listened, and waited. If I was lucky enough to land a solid blow or two, maybe I could run back home, or at least make it close enough to yell out an alert or something.

  Shadows danced all around me, playing havoc with my senses. I never gave much thought to how dark and scary the woods could be until I found myself alone and very defenseless inside them. Dark outlines seemed to run and sprint all around, and I could have sworn that I was surrounded by an army of black silhouettes. Of course, this was just a product of my overactive imagination. I hoped.

  Did I actually survive a horrible car accident thirteen months ago only to die in the middle of the woods, killed by God knows what?

  Once again, this was my fault. If I could have turned back time to where I started to think that going into the woods and confronting my stalker was a good idea and kick my ass the minute it crossed my mind, I would have.

  When another twig snapped, this time so close to me I flinched, I spread my legs apart, brought the bat up and waited for him—or it—to get closer. I was too afraid to back down now, and if whatever was approaching got close enough to me, I was going to decapitate the SOB, human or not.

  The overwhelming feeling of not being alone rushed over me and as a dark figure stepped out from behind a tree, I swung the bat with all my might, aiming
straight for his head.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The bat connected with something solid, and a soft grunt escaped the man’s lips, followed by a soft oath that would’ve put even the meanest of sailors to shame.

  “Are you trying to kill me? What the hell are you doing?”

  Wait just a second, I know that voice.

  “Kyran? Kyran!” I couldn’t believe my eyes. He really was standing there, clad in nothing but a pair of jeans.

  “Are you trying to behead me?” His expression was one of puzzlement and anger combined.

  “I was, actually.”

  He rubbed his forearm vigorously and I deduced that was where the bat made contact. Boy, I had the worst aim ever. How did I manage to hit his arm when I was aiming for his head?

  “Why?” he snapped.

  That did it. That tone he used infuriated me all over again. “Oh, hold on just a second here. I should be asking all the questions, not you. What the hell are you doing roaming around my house in the middle of the night anyway? What kind of sick pervert are you?”

  “This isn’t your house. Haven’t you noticed we’re in the middle of the woods?”

  God, I wanted to slap him so bad. “The hell we are! This is my father’s land and you’re trespassing.”

  He scoffed, and I had the sudden urge to go for a second blow. This close, I was pretty confident I would make a crude indentation in his skull.

  “Do you enjoy peeping at other people? Is that, like, something you get off on?”

  Had I not been so angry, I would’ve laughed at his expression. His face registered shock, disbelief, and surprise all at once.

  “No! I’m not that kind of person,” he barked.

  “Really? ’Cause I’m pretty sure it was you I saw here last night, and I’m really pissed off right now. You better have a good excuse as to why you’re walking around on my father’s property half naked.”

  He turned his face away and refused to answer.

  “All right, I’m calling the police.” I didn’t have my cell, but hell, he didn’t know that.

  “What’re you going to call the police with, the bat?”

  Damn him. “No, I…have…my cell.” Somewhere out there, where it’s doing me no good.

  He sneered. “Right.”

  “You didn’t answer my question, Kyran. What’re you doing out here?”

  “What’re you doing out here?”

  “Damn it, Kyran, don’t test me because I’ll knock that pretty little head of yours right off those broad shoulders.” Was I giving him a compliment while simultaneously threatening to decapitate him? Leave it to me to come up with a sentence like that one.

  “I’d like to keep my pretty little head, thank you very much,” he said hotly.

  His answer, however sarcastic it was, almost made me laugh and I had to bite my lower lip to keep from smiling. He looked so cute when he was annoyed.

  “Are you some kind of peeping tom or serial killer?” How pathetic was it that I expected him to answer truthfully?

  “Not the last time I checked.” He moved away from me and sat on the very log I’d tripped over moments earlier.

  “Then what’re you doing out here?” I moved closer so that I could look at his face. His eyes seemed to glimmer a bit when the reflection of the overhead moonlight landed on his gorgeous silver globes and I found myself mesmerized by the rare display.

  “Running, jogging, clearing my head, tossing caution to the wind, pick the one you like best.” Kyran’s confident and mocking tone was about to earn him a major slap in the face and he didn’t even know it—or maybe he did.

  “That’s not funny!” I snapped.

  “I’m not trying to be.” But he was still smiling and I had the feeling he did so just to irritate me further.

  “Fine, be that way, you arrogant fool. You think you can just show up here and pretend like its normal behavior for a person to snoop around someone else’s property wearing nothing but a pair of jeans?” If looks could kill, I would’ve been done for right then. “If I ever see you meddling around here again, I’ll have you arrested. I’m leaving, good night.”

  He snapped his head toward me and took hold of my wrist, whirling me around to face him. “Wait! You can’t possibly think I’m like that, Marjorie.”

  Oh, so he wasn’t so tough after all. “What else am I supposed to think? Besides, I don’t know you at all. How do I know you’re not some kind of pervert, or something worse?”

  “I guess you don’t know,” he replied simply. “I could be something worse.”

  I certainly hoped he was just messing with me because otherwise I was in serious trouble. I was, after all, standing in the middle of the woods with a half-naked man twice my size.

  “What were you really doing out here?” Maybe it was useless to even ask, but damn if I didn’t want to know.

  “Jogging.”

  “Jogging?” Was he serious? “How stupid do you think I am?”

  He brought his eyes up to meet mine. Our gazes clashed and the intensity in those eyes almost brought me down to my knees. I was contemplating looking away, but he did so first, and I sighed in relief because it felt as if I’d been released when his gaze was no longer holding mine captive, which was strange since he wasn’t actually holding on to me or anything.

  “I jog at night. It’s more relaxing that way and leaves less people to see me.”

  “You expect me to believe you jog at night wearing nothing but jeans?”

  “Sometimes I don’t wear anything at all.”

  Yeah, like a sentence like that one wouldn’t conjure up all kinds of inappropriate images. Despite my reservations, I found myself staring at his masculine physique and handsome face. Jesus! He’s gorgeous.

  “Oh yeah, that’s not perverted.” I bit my lower lip to keep from saying more.

  The hard lines on his face smoothed out when he laughed, making him appear even younger. He motioned for me to sit next to him and I gave in. I sat, still gripping the bat just in case he thought about making a move I didn’t agree with.

  From that short distance, his aroma invaded my nostrils in quick waves, tantalizing them with his delicious smell. I had the sudden urge to lean in to him and bury my nose against his chest. Long strands of hair blew across his face after a soft breeze picked up, and I watched, enthralled, as he lifted one muscled arm to remove a lock from his face and tuck it behind his ear. I longed to reach out and run my fingers down his long hair to see if it was as soft as it appeared.

  “Aren’t you afraid?” I asked while staring at the undulations of his chest.

  “Of what?” he said as if there was nothing out there for him to be afraid of.

  “Getting arrested for running around in the nude.”

  He seemed to think his answer over before he actually responded. “It’s usually late when I go out and most people around here are farmers that work hard and go to bed early, so I doubt anyone would be up to see me.” He turned his attention from the darkness of the woods to me. “But if I’m ever arrested for indecent exposure I’ll make sure to call you to bail me out. After all, you’re the only one that knows my secret.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. He laughed too, and the tension seemed to dissipate somewhat. Of course, the second I had a mental image of him running naked in the woods, my laugh died. His perfectly sculpted form wasn’t by any means something to laugh at.

  As his attention shifted from me back to the dark woods, I seized the opportunity to allow my eyes to slide down his face, neck, shoulders, and finally his hard chest. Oh, he was ripped all right. Even in darkness, I could see his well-developed muscles.

  And once again, I’m burning up just by looking at him.

  He must have sensed my deviant scrutiny because he turned his attention toward me and smiled. “You finished checking me out?”

  My eyes snapped away from his body at once. “Don’t flatter yourself. I wasn’t checking you out.”

  He shrugg
ed as if it was of little importance to him and stood, extending his hand to me. “Whatever you say.”

  “Is this like an every night thing for you or something?” I pried.

  “No, just when I can get away,” he whispered.

  Get away from what? “You have to admit, it sounds kind of freakish to be jogging out at night wearing nothing but pants. Who does that?”

  His lips curved up into a smile. “I do.”

  “Why? Are you trying to present yourself as a weirdo? ’Cause most people tend to stray away from things that will point them out to others.”

  He gave me one of those one-shoulder shrugs and said, “I don’t care what others think of me.”

  “You don’t? Why not?”

  “Do you care what others think of you?” He turned things around on me, eyeing me curiously as he waited for me to answer.

  “Sometimes I do,” I confessed.

  “Well, I don’t do well among others anyway, so I don’t value their opinions of me under any circumstances.” Honestly blazed in his eyes. He really didn’t care.

  “I’ve noticed,” I muttered.

  He cocked his head to one side as if he was having trouble hearing me. “Have you?”

  “Yes. You have this whole I’m-antisocial-so-don’t-talk-to-me thing going on.”

  He stared at me for several long seconds without saying anything. “I’m sorry if I disappoint you, but that’s just who I am,” he replied at last.

  “I didn’t say anything about being disappointed, just that I find it…strange.”

  “Getting close to people isn’t something I like to do,” he said defensively.

  “I can understand that.”

  “Not because I don’t want to but because I can’t.” He sounded so sincere I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else that I was missing.

  “You don’t have to explain yourself, Kyran.” I touched his forearm and gasped when that same electrifying sensation again coursed through me. When he looked at me, I knew he could feel it too.

  “We should both be getting back now. If I don’t make it back home soon, my brothers will come looking for me. And I don’t want them to find me here with you and start to get the wrong idea.”