Blood on the Moon

by Jennifer Knight

  I hiccupped from the effort of holding in my laughter and looked up at Derek. He smiled down at me and shrugged.

  “You know some, right, Mark?” Heather asked. “I remember you telling one on the senior trip to Disney World last year.”

  “I know one,” Mark said. “But it’s dumb, and it’s not true or anything.”

  “Oh, but it’ll be fun!” Ashley gushed. “Come on, Mark.” She batted her eyes at him and I could tell these stories were going to be told whether or not I wanted to hear them.

  “Okay, okay,” Mark said. He looked around at us and said, “Once upon a time on the night of the full moon, there was this group of chicks who went skiing up at the summit.” He pointed to the giant mountain looming over us and I looked up at it. “They were all friends,” Mark continued. “There was a good girl, a bad girl, a mean girl, and a dumb girl.” I smothered my laughter. This sounded like a bad joke, not a ghost story. Mark shot a dirty look at me but went on. “They all spent the day skiing when suddenly the dumb girl goes missing. The other three friends get scared and start looking for her in the woods and calling out her name. But they can’t find her. They decide to split up and meet back at the ski lift at nightfall. So they search and search . . . but they can’t find her. Then night falls and they meet up at the ski lift. But the bad girl is missing now, too.

  “The other two are really freaked. They call 911, but the dispatcher thinks it’s a prank for the full moon, so nobody comes to help. Now it’s really dark, even though the moon is shining bright. They know the woods are dangerous, but they can’t leave their friends out there alone. So they take off into the trees, hoping against hope that they’ll find them.

  “Hours pass and the girls are freezing. They decide to go back to the ski lift and try again with the 911 call, when they hear this growling in the trees. They stop and look around. They hear snow-crunching foot falls coming their way.” Mark’s voice had become low and dramatic. I leaned in like Pete and Heather and peeled my ears to hear him.

  “They look down at the snow and see it’s stained red with blood. There’s nasty, gnarled-up guts dragged all over the place and the girls start screaming. They know it’s their friends mangled up in the snow. They start to run, and they can hear those foot falls crunching after them. The mean girl looks back over her shoulder and trips on a root. She falls and the good girl tries to help her up. They freeze and see this huge beast standing in front of them.

  “It looks like a wolf, but bigger. Meaner. It’s got pale eyes like the moon and it rises up onto its haunches like a human. The girls are so scared they can’t even scream. The thing runs at them and the mean girl pushes the good one in front of her to save herself. But the beast bats the good girl aside and rips into the mean one, tearing her body to bits. Blood sprays the trees, the snow, everything. Then the beast turns on the good girl.” Everything was silent save Mark’s deep voice, softer than the trees rustling around us. “The beast looks into her eyes, walks toward her, fangs dripping with blood and then ... IT BITES HER HEAD OFF!!”

  Ashley screamed and I yipped because she did. Heather gasped too, and Derek started laughing his ass off. Pete and Mark guffawed like jerks as I beat my fists against Derek.

  “Shut up!” I yelled. “You’re all ass bags, seriously!”

  “Oh, man,” Mark said. “That was great. I so had you going. You were all laughing and then you screamed like an idiot.”

  “I only screamed because Ashley screamed,” I argued back.

  “Uh-huh,” Mark said. “Suuure.”

  “That’s a true story too, Faith,” Ashley said, still giggling wildly.

  “No, it’s not,” I said dismissively.

  “Well, it sort of is,” said Mark. This guy seemed determined to make me wrong about everything. “The whole part about the four girls going missing on the full moon is true. The scary beast in the woods got made up after this crazy dude swore he saw Bigfoot out here once.”

  “Bigfoot?” I said skeptically.

  Mark chuckled and took a swig of Jack Daniel’s. “I think it was a wolf that got ’em,” he said.

  I gulped and glanced around into the dusky shadows of the surrounding woods. “Are there ... wolves out here?”

  “Yup,” Mark said. “That’s why you gotta bring a gun when you come camping out here.” He jerked his head toward his tent, and my eyebrows jumped up.

  “You have a gun?” I asked incredulously.

  “Uh-huh,” Mark grunted. Then he must have seen my expression because he said, “I got a permit, don’t have a heart attack.”

  I exhaled a little, but I was still nervous about having a firearm out here. I rubbed my hand over the scar on my thigh, remembering with a shiver the feel of the bullet ripping through my flesh. Five years and the scar was still sore. Derek gave my shoulders a little squeeze.

  “Jeez, I’m beat,” Pete said, yawning. “And we gotta get up early tomorrow and get back to campus. Band practice.”

  I heard Heather groan and watched them shuffle into their tent together.

  “Night,” I said.

  “Night,” they both replied.

  “Yeah, I think I’m gonna hit it, too,” said Ashley. She stood and gave Mark a come hither look. “Goodnight,” she said breathily. I rolled my eyes.

  Mark watched her go into the tent Ashley and I were sharing. I prayed he wouldn’t be making any midnight visits. Yuck.

  The three of us sat there for a while, and I listened to Derek and Mark talk sports. An hour later, having reached the bottom of the Jack Daniel’s bottle, Mark tottered into his tent, leaving me and Derek alone in the moonlight.

  I was exhausted. Spending the day hiking, kayaking, and worrying about serial killers will do that to a person. I leaned over Derek’s lap and didn’t make him stop when he began to run his fingers through my hair. He liked to do it and I liked to let him. It wasn’t a big deal.

  “Hey, Faith?” he whispered.

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m a little ... hurt that you invited all these people. You know I wanted it to be just the two of us.”

  I squeezed my eyes together and tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t sound totally mean. I listened to the fire crackling and popping. Minutes went by.

  “Faith?” he asked. “You awake, baby?”

  I felt my heart skitter.

  “Yeah. I’m awake.”

  “You gonna talk to me?” His voice was gentle.

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I just ... you know how I feel about us. I don’t want things to change.”

  “They don’t have to,” Derek said. “We can stay friends, just like we are. We’ll just be . . . more. Wouldn’t that be better?”

  I didn’t answer for a moment. I was tempted to say yes. I was always tempted, but giving in was wrong. It wouldn’t be fair to Derek to tie him up in all my messed up crap. Besides, we had tried being together once before and he proved to me that he couldn’t handle it. In middle school, I’d turned to him when my life had felt like it was unraveling and he’d been there for me. He’d been the only reliable thing in my life for three years while I pulled myself together. My mom was always leaving on business, my stepdad was in prison, girlfriends were flighty at best, and Derek was always, always there. Day or night, thick or thin, he always understood, always calmed the storm. I could have gone on like that forever. Best friends until we were old and gray. But when we were sixteen Derek had wanted to take things further. And I’d agreed because for me, there was no one else but him. And if he wanted more, it was the least I could do to repay him. He’d been my best friend and my first kiss.

  And then he cheated on me. The one guy I never thought would break my heart did just that. The ordeal had almost destroyed our friendship forever. But being without Derek had never been an option. Because without him I had no one.

  So although I was still hurt inside, I kept it pent up to preserve our friendship. But that still didn’t mean I could trust him in a
relationship. Derek knew our dating days were over—I’d told him that more times than I could count.

  “No,” I said finally. “It wouldn’t be better, Derek. And don’t ask me why not because you know the answer to that.”

  I felt Derek’s hand clench around my hair. I snatched it away and sat up, looking into his bright blue eyes.

  “We have to be friends,” I said. I reached out and touched his cheek. He grabbed my hand and held it there. He brought it closer to his lips and closed his eyes. I heard him inhale over my wrist, the sensation bringing butterflies to my stomach. I swallowed hard and tried to gather myself.

  His lips touched my skin and my heart sputtered. I forced myself to pry my hand away.

  “No, Derek,” I said as firmly as possible. “You know why. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Derek’s brows drew together. “Why don’t you let me decide whether or not I want to hurt myself, for once? You’re not my mother or my babysitter or whatever. If I want to be hurt, I’ll be hurt.”

  “That’s dumb,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say. “It’s dumb to hurt yourself for no reason.”

  “I have a reason,” he said angrily. “You’re my reason. I love you, Faith.”

  My pulse sped up at those words. I’d heard him say them before, but they didn’t mean any less now. They meant everything. How I wished I could say them back. But I couldn’t love Derek. I couldn’t love anyone.

  “Stop it,” I said, looking away. “It took me a long time to get over what you did when we were dating and now we’re friends. I don’t want to ruin that.” I saw the pain in his eyes and my heart ached. That look was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

  “I came here with you,” he said, “because I thought maybe you could learn to love me back—that you’d finally gotten over everything that happened with your stepdad.”

  “That has nothing to do with why I can’t be with you, Derek. I can’t fall in love with you because I can’t trust you.”

  “That’s not true. Even back then, before I screwed up, you wouldn’t love me, you’d never even say the words.”

  I started to protest, but Derek cut me off.

  “I get why. I get that what he did to you guys ruined your faith in love, but I just thought that you’d get over it eventually and that one day you’d forgive me; finally be able to trust me again. But now I can see that that’ll never happen.” He stood up and looked down at me, his face a mask of torture in the hazy light of the fire.

  I reached my hand out and grabbed hold of his.

  “Don’t do this,” I begged. “You know I . . . love you, I just . . .”

  “You don’t love me the way I love you, Faith. You don’t want me.” He pulled me up by my hand and did something I never expected. He took my face in his big hands and pressed his lips against mine. I felt my knees buckle and I held onto his arms to keep from falling.

  He deepened the kiss, spreading my lips apart with his tongue. I couldn’t resist. I let him kiss me, let myself fall away. He’d kissed me this way before, but somehow it felt different now. It felt like the last time. There was desperation in the way his hands raked over my body, the way his lips pressed against mine hungrily, as if he was trying to fit a lifetime of kisses that would never come into this one stolen moment. The thought broke my heart and I was filled with the need to kiss him back—to give in . . . just one more time.

  He drew back and looked down at me, the flames glinting in his eyes. He wiped my face, and I was surprised to find that I was crying.

  “Let yourself love me, Faith,” he whispered, almost begging me.

  But I knew this would end the same way it always did. There would be tears and yelling and months of not speaking. It would end with pain. I couldn’t take the chance of falling for him again and him changing his mind

  “I—I can’t,” I choked.

  Derek’s face distorted in anguish. I wanted to reach out and smooth it away, to take it all for myself. He held me for a long time and finally whispered, “I don’t want to lose you, but I can’t keep doing this to myself.” His eyes hardened and he let go of me. “There’s only so much a guy can take, Faith, and I just reached my breaking point.”

  He turned slowly and stalked into his tent. I watched, clutching the quilt to my body as he zipped up the flap behind him, closing his heart as well as mine.

  4

  SUSPICION

  I lay awake for hours after that. Derek’s face haunted me behind my closed eyelids. I kept hearing his voice, feeling his lips over mine.

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I unzipped myself from my sleeping bag, shoved my sneakers on, pulled on a jacket, and stole outside.

  The air was frigid. I almost went right back inside my tent, but the prospect of being alone with my thoughts was too horrible. Instead, I charged forward, hoping to warm my rigid muscles with movement. I walked along the edge of the river and stared out at the thick band of pine trees rustling on the opposite side. The moonlight played games with their branches, contorting the shadows into creepy shapes. I got the feeling that evil things were lurking within the darkness of those trees. Big, scary, hairy things that bit girls’ heads off at the full moon.

  I looked up and froze.

  It was the full moon.

  For a moment I couldn’t breathe as my mind flooded with images of white snow stained with blood. I took in a long breath and calmed myself. It was just a dumb story. It was about Bigfoot, for God’s sake. I turned around to walk back toward camp anyway, keeping my eyes on the trees. No matter what I told myself, I was still afraid of them. It was like they were watching me. I could almost see glinting eyes peeking out from between every limb. I walked faster and glanced around to make sure nothing was following me. The wind blew from behind, sending my hair billowing in front of my face. I watched the brownish-black of it snake before my eyes and stretch into the night.

  I tucked it into my jacket and walked even faster, almost jogging. My breath turned to mist in front of my face and my feet stamped hard on the pine needles choking the ground. As I ran, I watched those pines. Those staring pines.

  It was then that I saw it: a shadowy form painted against the tree line. It was almost the same shade as the trees, deep green, close to black. I stopped.

  There was something big on the edge of the trees. Something alive. It moved, and I took a step back, heart throbbing. I ducked down behind a boulder and hid. Edging around the side of the rock, I squinted my eyes to see through the gray night. The figure was still there. It looked like it might be a person. Then it split in half and I realized it was actually two people.

  One I recognized as Mark and the other . . . maybe Ashley? Were they having a make-out session on the opposite side of the river? But how would they even get over there?

  I crept slowly around the boulder, staying low to the ground. I wanted to know what Mark was doing out here so late, who he was talking to, and how he’d gotten over there. I didn’t see a boat, and God knows he couldn’t jump twenty feet across the icy river.

  The other person shifted at the tree line and came closer to the moonlight. It seemed to be a man, tall and slim. I could hear them talking about something. Arguing, it sounded like. I caught stray words like hungry, witnesses, and imbecile....

  I inched closer, heart racing loudly, making it difficult to hear.

  The mystery man shoved his fingers into Mark’s shoulder, jabbing as he spoke harshly. Then he pointed in the direction of our camp and snapped his fingers.

  I frowned and strained my ears.

  Mark hung his head and swept his jacket aside to stick his hands in his pockets. As he did so, I could see the silver glint of his gun in the moonlight. My eyes widened. If Mark felt threatened enough by this man to bring a gun with him when they met, then this was definitely a conversation I wanted no part of. I continued to watch them for a moment longer until the mystery man vanished into the woods.

  Mark stood there for a minute and then he,
too, seemed to just blend away into the shadows.

  I let my breath out.

  I got up and began walking to camp, trying to think of a logical reason for Mark meeting someone in the woods in the middle of nowhere.

  I couldn’t think of any.

  As I was getting close to camp, I stopped to give the trees one last glance. They still seemed to watch me, knowing secrets I could only imagine. I turned around to go back to my tent, but there was suddenly something blocking me.

  Mark.

  I gasped when I saw him, tripped over my feet and fell backward. My butt hit the frozen ground with a thump and I looked up at Mark, eyes wide.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. His voice sounded different. Menacing.

  “Nothing,” I stammered. “Taking a walk.” I stood and gathered myself. “People are allowed to walk aren’t they?”

  “Just odd to be out walking at three in the morning.”

  “Yeah, well it’s even odder to have mysterious conversations with random people on the other side of a freezing river.”

  Mark’s gaze sharpened on me. I was suddenly all too aware that he had a gun in his pocket. Maybe revealing that I’d been spying on him hadn’t been too smart.

  “But I’m sure you had your reasons,” I said, forcing out a smile. “Just like I have mine.”

  He continued to stare me down, eyes like knives.

  “Okay, then,” I said, scooting around him toward camp. “I’ll just ... go . . .”

  He grabbed my arm and pushed me into a tree. The back of my head hit hard against the harsh bark, and his beefy hands pinned my arms with an almost inhuman strength.

  “Say a word to anyone,” he warned, “and I swear I’ll kill you. Slowly.”

  I tried not to be afraid, but it was hard. I knew he had a gun. My mind flashed with memories of gunshots, of my mom screaming. Mark’s fingers pressed into my arms, bringing tears to my eyes.

  “I didn’t see anything but you talking to an old buddy,” I managed. My voice warbled despite my try for composure.

  He shook me.

  “No. You saw nothing. You never took a walk. You stayed in the tent where you were supposed to be and you never saw a damn thing. Got it?”