“Girlintheshadows?”
Why I had picked that name when I registered an account on Dr. Lowenstein’s website, I had no idea, but I kind of felt like I was left in the shadows by doubts and uncertainty of the unknown.
“B. Smith?”
“Yes.”
I tried not to sound too eager as I replied. “I’m Girlintheshadows.”
“It is nice to meet you, even if it’s over the phone.” She said.
The woman certainly didn’t sound like a nut job to me. “Yes, nice to meet you too.”
“I hope I’m not making a mistake by calling you, dear.” She sounded like she was already regretting the call.
“No, you’re not.” I hurried to reassure her. The last thing I wanted was for her to hang up. “I…your post caught my attention. I haven’t read any like it anywhere.”
“Everyone just says I’m crazy, that I’m just looking for attention. But I assure you that isn’t the case.”
“I know.” I sighed heavily.
“You do?” she gave me the impression of being skeptical about me or what I had to say. Not that I could blame the woman. She didn’t know me.
“Well, no one calls me crazy, but that’s because I haven’t told anyone what I’ve seen.”
Mrs. B. Smith didn’t respond right away. I had no idea whether she was considering hanging up or not, but I hoped she wouldn’t cut the call short. I really needed to hear what she had to say.
After a moment of silence however, she finally asked, “What did you see?”
I went on to describe my encounters with the beast-like creature.
“My goodness, girl!”
Boy, that sounded bad. “Is it what I think it is?”
“You are in terrible danger!”
“Danger?” Great! Just what I wanted to hear!
“Yes, that thing is stalking you.”
I blanched. Things weren’t looking good for me at all. “I kinda figured that out on my own. But I want to know why.”
“I’m not sure why, but it wants something from you, something important. That’s why it hasn’t attack you yet.”
“How do you know this?” I asked. My life just keeps getting better and better.
“After what happened to me, I decided to do some meticulous research. For the past six years, I’ve done nothing but study them for every waking moment. I don’t consider myself an expert, but I have made many incredible discoveries about their kind. Normally, they appear to humans when they want something from them. We are nothing but food to them. But I’ve known of cases where they stalk a person for a particular reason, not just because they are hungry. If this being keeps appearing to you, it must want something other than food.”
“Like what? What could I possibly give it that would be of any importance?”
“I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that whatever it wants, it will come to claim it soon.”
Fantastic! “This werewolf creature, or person, or whatever it is, how do I find out who it is?”
“I don’t think you can find out who it is really, not unless you see something out of the ordinary that you immediately recognize. It could be anyone. Someone close to you, even, and you wouldn’t even know it. They might seem like the most normal set of people in the world, but underneath hides a vicious killer.”
“Um…you almost sound like you have experience.” That was it, my way of asking without asking.
“A few years ago my husband Howard, God rest his soul, was killed by these things. After his death, I tried to warn people but no one would listen. They called me a murderer and crazy, among other things. But I didn’t kill my husband, they did.” I could hear her sniffling, and later blowing her nose. I waited patiently for her to continue.
“How did you find out who they were?”
“You mean their human side?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t, not at first, anyway. They moved into the empty house at the end of the road that happened to be next to ours. We lived in a nice rural community where our houses were distanced a bit from each other, but we could see their house clearly from our front porch. In the beginning, we thought nothing of the new family that moved in. They were quiet and respectful. They never received visitors and they never mingled with any of the neighbors, which didn’t bother Howard or me. We thought maybe they were just a private family like we were.
“When I first saw them, I thought they were the most attractive family I’d ever seen. Parents and children were amazingly handsome. I thought the couple seemed awfully young to have grown kids, but they could’ve just started out young. The eldest son had to be eighteen at least. But it was their attractive physiques and their unique features that made them highly noticeable, especially amongst the young teenagers around the area. The girls took one good look at those boys and fell in love. I can’t say I blame them at all. If I’d seen boys like those when I was younger I would’ve fallen head over heels for them too.”
“What was so unique about them?”
“Well, for starters, they were very handsome. Not the average handsome you see everywhere. No, they were handsome like you’ve never seen anyone that good-looking in your entire life.”
“Ah, I get it.”
“Yes, and those eyes. You’ve never seen eyes that color, ever. They were the most beautiful shade of blue I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen many blue eyes in my lifetime. But these were different somehow, unique. Not to mention the two youngest boys. Oh…those eyes were a rich, beautiful shade of silver unlike any I’ve ever seen…”
The instant she said silver my entire body went numb. I was gripping my cell phone so hard my knuckles hurt. I slumped down on the bed to keep from collapsing onto the floor.
“Silver eyes?” The words were barely a whisper but she was able to hear me.
“Yes, silver eyes, just like their father’s. I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to have such unique eye coloring, but I was wrong.”
“How many children were there?”
“I can say for sure that there were four sons and one daughter.”
The possibility of what that bit of information could mean was driving me to the point of madness. Kyran and his family had moved from Iowa. Alexis and Kyran were twins who both had silver eyes. Kyran had three brothers and one sister.
“The youngest boys were in their early teens, fourteen or fifteen maybe. Like I said, aside from their attractiveness, nothing out of the ordinary distinguished or set them apart from any other family. But strange things started to happen around the neighborhood soon after their arrival to town.”
“Strange like what?”
“Pets around the neighborhood started to go missing. They were later found half-eaten in or around their property. We were all horrified of course, but we had no reason to suspect them at all. They had a huge Saint Bernard so we assumed it was probably the dog that was causing all the problems. Soon after, people started to go missing, most of them young. They just disappeared, vanished without a trace.
“A young teenage girl that lived two houses up the road developed a crush on one of the youngest boys. She was a cute girl and well known in the community. One night, as Howard and I sat on the front porch of our house, we saw the girl running down the road toward their home. We wondered what on earth she was doing, since it was late at night, and all the lights in the family’s home were off so we didn’t think she was invited over. She knocked on a window, but no one answered. She walked to the side of the house and knocked on another window, but still came no answer. After that she disappeared off to the side of the house, with the wooded area behind it, and that was the last anyone saw of her. All of this seemed strange to us, but since we’d seen her with that boy before, we thought that she was probably sneaking out to see him again.”
“Which boy was that?”
“One of the silver-eyed boys.”
For a brief moment, my heart dropped so far down I thought I could feel it
in my stomach.
“Afterwards, her parents reported her missing and police investigations were launched. We spoke to the police, told them what we saw, and they interrogated our neighbors. The police organized a massive manhunt around the wooded area surrounding our homes but they found no trace of her anywhere. Tracker dogs were brought in too, but they never managed to locate her scent. It was as if by running off into the woods she grew wings and flew off. Howard and I never actually saw her go inside the house, so we had no reason to believe the family had anything to do with her disappearance.
“Weeks after she vanished, Howard started noticing various young men lurking around the neighbors’ house during late night hours. We even saw one of them cross over to our property and run into the woods once. The speed with which this individual leaped into the air and ran across our backyard was staggering. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Howard, however, wasn’t impressed. He accused the young man of being under the influence of some street drug.
“Anyway, as if by ritual they continued to come to the house night after night. They hung around the woods to the back and sides of the property, watching the house. Howard was angry, but I thought it was probably some young kids trying to pull a prank or something. But as the weeks passed by, more men started to show up, most of them no older than about twenty. That’s when we decided that something wasn’t right, we could feel it. I started to grow more afraid when I noticed how they watched the house. Something about their posture didn’t seem…normal to me.
“On one occasion Howard caught one youngster crossing over our property line again and he threatened to call the police if they didn’t split. They didn’t cross the property line again, but they remained near the neighbors’ house, constantly watching. Every night before heading off to bed, Howard and I observed them for long periods of time, trying to decide what to do. And the weirdest thing is that I think they knew we were watching and they didn’t care.
“Howard called the police one time, but the men disappeared before the authorities arrived. The police searched the area anyway, just in case they spotted someone. I had the feeling they did so just to placate us. To them, we were probably just a bunch of old folks complaining about rowdy teenagers. The men were nowhere to be seen for several days afterwards. Then one night, the night, Howard and I awoke to a horrified scream from what sounded like a girl. Her terrified cries were soon followed by howls and growls from what sounded to us like bears. Howard grabbed his shotgun and, despite my foreboding, headed toward the wooded area where we heard the young girl’s screams. I tried to stop him but he was afraid that whoever was out there was in terrible danger and the police wouldn’t get there in time to save the person. I didn’t know at the time that that would be the last I would see of my husband of thirty years, alive.”
Something told me this story was forever going to change my life.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Before leaving, Howard asked me to wait ten minutes and if he didn’t come back, to call the police, just in case it was nothing but kids pulling a prank on us. It had happened in the past, so he just wanted to avoid an embarrassing encounter with the local police. I waited no more than five minutes before I decided to call. As I was dialing 911, I heard a shot, then another, and another, followed by a scream. I knew without a shadow of a doubt it was Howard’s cry.
“I dropped the phone and started running toward where I last saw Howard walking. I must have run some fifty yards into the woods, more or less. What I saw once I got there has been forever imprinted in my memory. These beasts…these werewolves were locked in mortal combat. There were many of them, fifteen or twenty, perhaps more. The girl was nowhere to be seen, or at least she wasn’t there when I arrived. My Howard was on the ground…what was left of him. A smaller werewolf stood by him, not touching him, just standing there.
“The fight between the big ones grew even more grotesque. I saw them ripping at each other, biting into each other. It was horrifyingly magnificent to see such a display. But as the fight continued, all I saw was Howard’s dead body, half-eaten, lying very still on the ground. The werewolf standing next to him soon started to take human shape, and imagine my surprise when I saw it was one of the neighbors’ youngest sons. One of the silver-eyed boys stood there, covered in blood, scratches and bite marks all over his body. I was stunned and my body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. When I reached Howard’s body, the boy took off in the direction the others had taken. And that was the last I saw of them.
“My Howard was dead, killed by those monsters, and the police called me crazy and said I should be locked up in an asylum. No one believed me. They said the grief over losing my husband caused me to hallucinate. That wasn’t the case at all. Now for the past six years I’ve been trying to warn people about these animals. It does little good, but if I can get to someone, even one person, at least I feel like I haven’t let Howard down.”
I couldn’t speak; my throat had gone completely dry.
“Are you still there?”
I barely managed to find my voice for long enough to say, “I’m so sorry for your loss, Mrs. Smith.”
“Thank you, dear.”
Could it be? Where they one in the same?
“Do you remember their names?”
“They had a foreign last name.” she paused for a moment. The only indication she was still on the other side was the sound of her breathing. A second later she added, “But I can’t exactly remember it right now. I…can’t recall it, I’m sorry.”
“Oh, I…Thank you for sharing your story with me.”
“I’m worried about you and this thing stalking you.”
She wasn’t the only one worried. I was scared out of my mind. I was being stalked by a werewolf because it wanted something from me. How was I going to win a fight against a werewolf? There was no way I could fight back. I’d seen how much damage it could do. I didn’t stand a chance.
“Whatever this thing wants from me, he’ll come to take it soon, right?”
“I suppose.”
“Then all I have to do is wait.”
“I’ll pray for you, child.”
“Thank you.” Good, I was going to need a lot of prayers.
Still feeling numb after our conversation, I hung up and placed my cell on the nightstand. Could it be? It is, and you know it, you feel it. Kyran and his family sure fit the bill. The similarities were all there. But could I honestly think they were the same family? There was only one way for me to find out.
Feeling a sudden flow of nausea rising from my abdomen, I ran to the bathroom and vomited the contents of my stomach into the toilet bowl. I washed my face and rinsed my mouth out and made my way back to my room. Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I made an abrupt decision, one that would probably change my life forever. I had to face the truth, and if Kyran turned out to be a monster, then at least I would know for sure instead of always wondering.
I exchanged my short pajama bottoms for a pair of long ones and tied my hair back into a ponytail. With a pair of clean socks on my feet, I donned a pair of black boots and grabbed a sweatshirt from the closet in case it was chilly out. With cell and sweatshirt in hand, I made my way down the stairs.
Vicki and the girls were already sleeping, so I had no trouble sneaking downstairs. As soon as I made it to the kitchen, I began to search for Vicki’s car keys. She always placed them inside the chicken-shaped cookie jar above the kitchen sink, so that was the first place I looked. To my relief, they were there. I knew I could get in a lot of trouble if I was caught, but at that moment I didn’t care.
Locking the front door behind me, I stepped out onto the front porch, then ran toward the car that Vicki had parked near the barn and which, unbeknownst to her, made things easier for me that night. From that distance, I could turn the ignition on and it wouldn’t be heard inside the house. Once the doors were unlocked, I climbed inside, set my sweatshirt on the passenger side seat, stuffed my cell in my pants
pocket, and turned the key. With the headlights off, I drove slowly down the driveway and onto the nearby road.
Soon I was driving toward my destination: Kyran’s house. What exactly was I expecting to find? I didn’t know, but I felt as if confronting Kyran was a crucial step. I had the feeling, deep down in my gut, that if I asked, he would tell me the truth. I didn’t even know if I was prepared to hear the facts. What if he turned out to be a monster? What if he really was the beast stalking me?
As I continued to debate whether or not to face the truth, a lot of things started to make more sense to me. The way Kyran’s eyes shifted colors, his voracious appetite for meat, the way his skin was always unusually warm, his unusual mood swings, his so-called exceptionally good hearing.
I finally understood what his condition truly was…
Werewolf.
***
Within minutes, I was able to make out the small pathway to the left side of the main road that led to his house. I didn’t want to confront him inside his home, so I parked the car near the road, far enough so that it couldn’t be seen from the house. After turning the car off, I opened the door and stepped out, making sure to lock it behind me.
Feeling extremely apprehensive about being out in the open with potential werewolves not too far away, I began to have doubts as to why I was there exactly. Then I recalled my conversation with Beatrice Smith and I longed to know the truth about Kyran and his family, even if it killed me.
I must’ve walked a good distance from the car when I finally stopped to survey the area around me. It was dark but I could still see the car parked a few yards away, so I felt confident I could probably run to it in a short amount of time if the need arose.
Shaking with anticipation, I took out my cell and texted Kyran.
Kyran, are you home?
There was no answer for a few minutes and I honestly thought he wasn’t going to answer me at all.
Yes. Why?
Finally, and it only took him five minutes!
I need to talk to you, it’s important.
Secrets of the Moon Page 22
