Secrets of the Moon

by Kristy Centeno

  Taking slow, sturdy steps, I started toward the open gate. The three dogs still barked somewhere in the background but I was no longer focused on them. My full attention was currently engrossed in getting that gate closed and locked. My heart constricted sharply as I saw the trail of blood lead to the stand of trees and disappear through the thick darkness beyond them where I had witnessed the shadow disappear.

  Once I closed the gate, I intended to lock it but found the padlock to be missing. It didn’t take me long to notice four long claw marks that ran down the front of the gate from top to bottom, leaving indentations impossible to ignore, almost like a gruesome fingerprint. Down at my feet lay the broken lock; it was actually split in two. It was safe to assume that that was the origin of the cracking sound I heard just moments before the attack occurred. For some reason, I expected the beast to have jumped over the gate instead of using the door as a normal human would have.

  A loud snapping sound emanating from the woods just behind me distracted me from the task. Fearing the beast was making his way back to me, I whirled around as fast as I could and brought the bat before me. There wasn’t anything to indicate the beast was nearby, but I wasn’t going to take a chance. The dogs ran over to where I stood and grouped around me, growling with murderous intent. The hairs at their backs were raised, tails pointing straight up.

  After what seemed like hours rather than a few seconds, all eerie and hair-raising sounds eventually died down enough that I began to feel as if the beast had made its way back to whatever hellhole it crawled out of. Aware that somewhere in the woods lay my horse Coal, I started a very nervous gait toward the tree line. The dogs faithfully followed as I made the stupid decision to go find my missing horse. I dared to hope it was still alive and had only run, spooked, into the woods. But deep down, I knew it was useless to even hope. I mean, no animal could lose that much blood and survive.

  My first encounters with the beast had proven to be completely scary and perfectly harmless. But that changed drastically from one day to another. Something in the beast and the atmosphere around it had changed.

  The woods were quiet as I approached the outskirts of the line of trees. I silently prayed for strength and for my courage to hold up. Running out of the adrenaline that kept me moving forward wasn’t really a viable option, and neither was dying. Buggy, my now faithful companion, took it upon himself to walk in front of me. Sassy and Kennel kept pace next to me. They were as alert as I was and probably just as scared.

  Once I stepped through the line of trees, the stillness and the silence within the woods hit me like a bucket of cold water. The heavy feeling of evil lingered in the air, and it was impossibly obvious that something rotten and foul had passed through the area. It felt as if malevolence was in the very air and I was breathing in every bit of it.

  There was no sign of the beast anywhere, and since the dogs were quiet, I assumed that had to be a sign that it was either gone or far away. With Buggy leading the way, I followed the trail he took while the other two dogs followed closely behind me. Somewhere ahead of me stood a big tree which had low-hanging branches and which forced me to duck in order to keep them from scratching my face. As I passed under the limbs, I stumbled, nearly falling face first on the ground. I caught myself before I made actual contact with the ground and started to straighten my body when I caught sight of something lying stiffly on the ground just a few feet away.

  Unable to tear my eyes away from the gruesome scene, I continued forward, completely ignoring Buggy’s sudden growl. Lying there, in a pool of blood and chunks of flesh, was the missing horse. My legs shook from the effort it took for me to keep standing when all I wanted to do was lean over and vomit the contents of my late dinner then drop to the ground, hopefully in a faint.

  Stunned by the set of events that took place but a few minutes before, I slumped down on the ground and brought my knees up to my chest. For a few seconds I just sat there, inhaling through my nose and exhaling slowly through my mouth as I tried to calm my racing heart. After a few short seconds, I was calm enough to where I didn’t feel as if I was going to pass out, so I started to rise when Buggy’s hysterical barks startled me. I spun around just in time to see Buggy leap forward, showing off his canines to the beast.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  All hell broke loose then as the three dogs launched an orchestrated attack, catching the beast off guard. Their little bodies lurched forward as they maneuvered around the beast, trying to locate any available space of flesh they could sink their canines into. The dogs sank their teeth in the beast’s body, drawing blood and slashing his flesh with more force than I would’ve given them credit for. Stupefied, I watched as the beast whirled around angrily, trying in vain to get rid of the little mutts.

  A low, menacing growl escaped its mouth when Buggy managed to gain access to its neck and bit down as hard as he could. Sassy bit one of the beast’s back legs and Kennel kept busy with a front leg. The beast then did something that struck horror in me like never before. It actually stood on its two hind legs, appearing almost human. Almost. It came up showing, baring its enormous canines, and by the look of those green eyes, it was angry as hell.

  Kennel lost his grip on the beast’s front leg and dropped to the ground as the beast rose. In a single swipe with one of its massive paws, the beast struck Kennel and sent him flying through the air. I hunkered down as I saw Kennel coming my way. Within seconds, I heard him strike the tree behind me with a sickening thud. My stomach rolled and nausea threatened to rise as I heard the sound of death just behind me.

  The beast then turned his attention to Buggy, who was still hanging from its neck. As it tried to yank Buggy off, I got up and ran toward them. Blinded by fear, anger, and survival skills I didn’t even know I possessed, I used the bat as the weapon I intended it to be and struck the beast hard against the muzzle. It growled loudly in anger and tried to swipe at me with one of its paws. I saw the blow coming and crouched before it made contact. Buggy let go of the beast’s neck and charged again, this time aiming for its genitals. That’s one thing you never see in movies—a werewolf’s genitals. Not that you could see much, since fur covered most of it. But I was sure of one thing: it was definitely male.

  Knowing Buggy was going to deliver a very painful blow, I took advantage of that to swing the bat upwards, catching the beast on its lower jaw and therefore forcing its mouth shut. Not satisfied with that, I rapidly swung the bat sideways with as much force as I could muster and directed it toward its face. The metal bat made contact with the beast’s eye with brutal force, coercing it to halt its actions. The sound of metal hitting flesh echoed in my ears as I backed up two steps to avoid the beast’s head as it swung it from side to side. It growled in pain and anger as it backed away from us, swiping at its eye with one paw and huffed and puffed in obvious discomfort. Buggy’s assault on the beast’s genitals, combined with my leaving him momentarily blind in one eye, made it step back and shrug the dogs off.

  Mad but defeated, it started to back away.

  The beast kept shaking its head from side to side, the discomfort stopping any further assaults on my dogs and me. I’d done serious damage to that eye. It was swollen shut and bleeding profusely. The beast kept backing off, a very noticeable limp distorting its walking pattern. The dogs took several steps forward, growling loudly as they followed the beast-like creature until it was out of sight.

  Unsure if the beast’s retreat was just a ruse to try to gain advantage and attack us again, I remained ready, bat in hand, just in case. For several minutes I waited, but there came no sign that the creature was anywhere nearby. Once I was sure it wasn’t coming back, I ran to where Kennel landed and confirmed that he was in fact dead. His body lay limp and lifeless on the hard soil beneath him. Blood poured from the side of his head and out his nostrils.

  After examining the dead carcass of what was once Kennel I stood, shaking and afraid, and ran out of the woods. It wasn’t until I was halfway to the house t
hat I noticed a figure running toward me. Unable to identify the person, I stopped, spread my legs apart, and swung the bat as hard as I could.

  “Good God, Marjie! What on earth are you doing out here?” Vicki’s high-pitched squeal of fright woke me from my fear-induced shock.

  Geez! I almost decapitated my stepmother. “Vicki! Vicki, it’s not safe out here.”

  Fearing for her life, and mine as well, I started to pull her toward the house. Vicki’s eyes opened as wide as dinner plates as she caught sight of my state of disarray.

  “Oh my God! Marjie! Are you hurt?”

  I ignored her and kept pulling her.

  “Marjie! Answer me! Are you hurt?”

  Once we reached the porch, I stopped. Her eyes widened when she saw exactly how much blood I had on me. It was all over my legs, feet, hips, and hands.

  “I’m not hurt, just scared.” Buggy and Sassy came up to us and whined to call for our attention.

  “But you’re covered in blood!”

  “It’s not mine.”

  “What do you mean? What happened?” I could tell she was on the verge of a panic attack. “I awoke to find you gone. I was sick with worry when I heard all those barks and growls out there and couldn’t find you.”

  “You heard?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I heard…I saw…” How much information should I give her? How far could I go without sounding crazy? “Coal is dead.”

  Her eyes rounded. “What?”

  “I found him dead. He’s in the woods.” I pointed over my right shoulder with my thumb.

  “But how? I have to go see—”

  “No! Don’t!” I grabbed Vicki’s arm before she could leave. I imagined she was scared to death at how I looked. “You won’t find much of Coal.”

  “What happened?” Vicki struggled to break away but I held on tight.

  “He was…attacked.”

  “By what?” Her gaze searched my face.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know…”

  “Was he…?”

  I nodded.

  “All of him?”

  “Most of him.”

  “I have to call the police.”

  I simply nodded and sat down on the wooden steps to await the arrival of the local police. Living in the middle of nowhere had its blessings, but it also had its curses. It took the police almost a half hour to get there. By the time they arrived at my house, I was ready to fall flat on my face from physical and emotional exhaustion. They noted my state and began to call for the paramedics. I assured them I hadn’t been hurt, just scared, but apparently the police officer didn’t believe me because he called the paramedics anyway.

  “Miss Emery, what exactly did you witness?” The officer asked.

  “Not much.”

  The officer started to write down notes on a tiny notepad while several others examined the premises. A specialist was brought in to examine the area.

  “Did you see what attacked your horse?”

  I saw it all right, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “I saw something.”

  “What do you mean?” He stared at me as if expecting me to elaborate.

  “It was too dark for me to see it well.” I lied, though I wondered if he could tell I was lying. Were police officers trained to spot a liar?

  “If you were to guess, what do you think it could be?”

  “Maybe a bear or a big wolf, I don’t really know.”

  He nodded and wrote down some more notes.

  “How did you get so soiled in animal blood?” he asked, after noting my state for the tenth time. I imagined I must look like I stepped out of a horror movie.

  “I stepped into the corral to check on the other horse and I slipped on the blood spilled on the ground.” I sighed, wishing the interrogation was over with so I could get on with my life.

  “Were you hurt in any way?”

  “No. I was just mostly scared.”

  He assessed me again, a look of concern crossed his features. “I think you should let the paramedics check you anyway, just in case.”

  “I’m fine, really.”

  “With all due respect, you don’t look fine. You’re as pale as a ghost.”

  How would he look if he witnessed what I just did? “All right.”

  One of the paramedics came closer and started to take my vitals.

  “Who’s that guy?” I asked the officer, pointing to the man he said was the specialist.

  “That is Mr. Crowkiller. He’s here to try and determine what killed the horse. There have been a growing number of cases involving wolf attacks in the area, so he’s here to figure out why the animals are acting out.” Wolf attacks? Something told me those attacks had nothing to do with wolves.

  “Crowkiller?” I just had to ask. “What kind of specialist is he, anyway?”

  “The name’s Native American.” Noticing his long black hair and his copper-colored skin, I kinda figured it was pretty obvious. “Wildlife expert.”

  The paramedic finished taking all my vitals, informing me that aside from having a slight acceleration of heart palpitations I was mostly all right. Of course, he didn’t count that I was still shaking from fear and my body barely responded to any command because I was still in shock.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw the Crowkiller guy and several police officers take out the body of the dead horse and place it in the back of a pickup. Not knowing what was going on, I stood and made my way toward the wildlife expert and his team, completely ignoring the police officer who had just been interviewing me.

  “What’re you doing?” I demanded a little angrily.

  “We’re taking the body to the lab to be examined further. You know, to try and determine what animal killed it. The only thing I’m able to tell right now is that it was attacked by a large predatory animal. I suspect a wolf did it, but I can’t be sure until I examine the carcass in a much more controlled environment. We’ll have to call in some more experts to help us determine that. This isn’t the first time a case of this nature has been called in this year. As a matter of fact, we’re getting one every other week, which is very unusual. Did you see what it was?”

  I highly doubted he’d find the answer as to what ate Coal in one of his text books. “It looked like an overgrown wolf to me.”

  “Well, wolves are common in this area. There’ve been cases where wolves have attacked livestock in the past, just not in this locale. Wolves around here are normally shy of anything manmade. So this wolf attack might be related to the incident at the Harrisons’ place.”

  Oh, this wasn’t a wolf attack. “Can a wolf eat that much meat?”

  “Not four cows, not all on its own. But if it travels with a pack it’s possible. Did you see just one, or were there more?”

  The possibility of there being more than one out there never even occurred to me. “I only saw one.”

  “How did you scare it away?” he asked and for a moment, I thought he appeared more than a little interested in my answer.

  “I didn’t. My dogs did. I don’t think it liked the odds of being outnumbered.”

  “I guess it didn’t. You are one lucky gal.” He had no idea how lucky exactly.

  “Thank you.” He smiled at me.

  I decided to ignore his handsome smile and walked away instead. I turned back toward the house and sat quietly on the steps as the police officer spoke to Vicki. By the time everything was cleaned up, and they had all packed up and left, it was time for me to get ready for school.

  Vicki insisted I stay home; she didn’t think I was mentally stable enough to risk a trip outside. Sticking around the place where the incident happened didn’t exactly appeal to me either, but what else was I supposed to do? I had nowhere else to go. She would have gladly stayed with me, except she couldn’t miss work and the girls needed to go to school.

  Since school was out of the question, I took out my cell to text Kyran.

  Kyran, I�
��m going to stay home today.

  Are you all right?

  To be honest, no, I’m not. I’m going through a little something over here.

  Do you want me to stop by?

  No, that’s all right. I’ll be fine. I just need to get some rest. I’ll see you later.

  Are you sure?

  Yes, I’ll be fine.

  I stayed out of sight because I didn’t want the girls to see me covered in blood. After Vicki and the girls left, I locked all the doors and windows of the house and ran up to the bathroom to take a long, slow shower. After washing off all the dirt and blood sticking to my skin, I put on a clean pair of pajamas and tossed away the ones I was wearing the night before. For the first time in months, I swallowed one of Dr. Lawrence’s prescribed pills. I knew it would knock me out cold. I needed to sleep, to rest, and most important, to detox from the horrors of that morning. I figured it didn’t matter if the beast came back while I slept. If it was going to attack, it was going to do so no matter what I did.

  Hours later, I was awakened by Vicki who had arrived home from work and had even cooked dinner. Dazed and confused, I sat to take in my surroundings. The digital clock on my nightstand showed six o’clock. I couldn’t believe I’d actually slept for that long. Those pills were designed to really knock you out.

  After dinner, I washed the dishes, took another shower, and locked myself up in my room. I had no intention of going outside to do my chores. I was still too shocked and scared to go outside and risk another encounter with the beast. Not feeling up to having a conversation with anyone, I absolutely refused to answer my phone at all.

  By ten o’clock that night, everyone was sleeping but me. I couldn’t even close my eyes without feeling afraid or thinking that the animal-like creature was waiting to pay me another creepy visit. Each time I squeezed my eyes shut, a flurry of images invaded my already crowded mind. Coal’s horrific death was haunting me. In order for me to sleep, I would have to take another pill, and that was something I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to depend on prescriptions to get me to sleep. The last thing I needed was to become addicted to prescription pills.