42nd Moon: The Woe of Soulmates

by Thea Chin

  “Oh, yeah. Aha. I guess we do,” Jaiden swallows, rubbing the nape of his neck.

  Tsukiko slides her eyes to the side to analyze his reaction but keeps silent.

  “Can you stabilize the other side while I nail these down?” Jaiden says from the other side of the orange nylon.

  A few hammering noises afterwards, he again calls out, “Do you think this looks right, Ki?”

  “I don’t know; I can’t see,” she replies.

  “Can you come over here? That side should hold for now.”

  “Okay, hold on.”

  Tsukiko digs the poles on her side a little deeper into the ground and makes her way over to the other side of the four persons tent.

  Jaiden hears her footsteps and begins, “There are two holes on this thing and I—”

  Just as she is turning the corner, a loose rock causes her to stumble over the pole Jaiden has just secured and trips… right into Jaiden’s arms.

  “Are you alright?” he gasps, eyes wide.

  “Y-yeah. I’m fine.”

  Jaiden gulps as he looks down at the girl. Her hair is draped gently over her face, and her head is pressed against his chest, breath tickling his skin. Since when did he start noticing things like that?

  “You can let go of me now,” she says.

  “Oh, sorry.” Jaiden returns her to the upright position. “What happened?”

  “A bad jinx,” she answers.

  Before he can ask for clarification, Jaiden notices something on her leg. “You’re bleeding!” he exclaims.

  Tsukiko looks down and indeed sees a large gash on her left ankle with debris stuck to it.

  “It’s okay. It’ll be f—”

  “SHE’S DYING!” Jaiden exclaims.

  To Tsukiko’s surprise and amusement, the other boys spare him no more than a glance after the dramatic proclamation.

  “Just bring her over here, Han,” sighs Xie Ming, pulling out some gauze.

  Tsukiko lets out a yelp when he carries her fireman style to the premed student. On the way, she sees Darren working on another tent with his girlfriend.

  “Aw, look how cute they are,” Terena coos to her boyfriend. “Let’s try that too. Catch me!”

  Darren does as told and peppers her in kisses once she is in his arms, sending them both into a fit of giggles and Tsukiko into a state of unexplainable sadness.

  Jaiden sets Tsukiko onto a log and Xie Ming gets to work, extracting fragments of pebbles and washing off dirt a little rougher than Jaiden is used to seeing his brother do this, but he doesn’t question it. As Tsukiko tries not to yelp in pain, Jaiden takes her hand and offers his for her to squeeze her agony into. At the same time, Mark approaches and sits on Tsukiko’s side.

  “Hey, if this is because of what I said earlier, I’m sorry. I was just joking,” he whispers.

  Tsukiko shakes her head. “Not on purpose,” she tries to convey.

  “Phew,” he breathes. “If you need anything, just let me know.”

  The girl nods, and he stands. Before Mark leaves, however, he bends back down to her ear.

  “If this was on purpose, then you’re doing great, sweetie,” he teases, nodding at her and Jaiden’s intertwined hands.

  For the first time, Tsukiko scoffs at her instructor, which only makes him laugh even more gleefully.

  * * *

  “Alright!” announces Finley, jumping up. “It’s time for”—he flashes his flashlight beneath his face—“ghost stories!”

  Tsukiko limps to a spot beside a frowning Jaiden. “I’m okay. Promise. See? I walked over here just fine.”

  He narrows his eyes and scrunches up his nose.

  “Truth or dare!” Terena objects.

  “No! You two are just going to make out if we do that,” rebuttals Cain. “Ghost stories are better.”

  “Only if you have a good one,” Mark adds.

  “Oh, but I do,” Cain grins mischievously.

  The crowd seems interested now. They all lean a little closer to him.

  “Once upon a time, there was a fair lady who lived by the foot of a mountain. It was thick with trees and filled with the unknown. Every time she walked into the neighboring town though, men would turn their heads for her, and the mysterious mountain air she carried only deepened their interest. She always went on the day of a full moon, and soon, the men began preparing feasts and festivities monthly for her arrival. Every month, she would go to this town, and every month, men would serve her hand and feet just to gain her attention. This was all of course, not without reward. Whenever she came, she would choose just one of these suitors to grace with her company for the evening, and the two would travel back to her dainty little house by the foot of the mountain. However, the men who went with her never seemed to return.

  “One day, a journalist named Max Wildes stopped by this town during his travels. This was the day before the fair lady’s expected arrival, and every man was too busy preparing to welcome their guest. Wildes didn’t mind; he instead found the folk culture of the town so fascinating, he wrote all about their preparations and efforts put into gaining just an eyelash bat from the lady. He was so intrigued, he even stayed an extra day to see the girl for himself.

  “‘I thought to myself that this is what Lewis and Clark must have felt when they reached the Pacific,’ he wrote when he finally saw her.

  “Like the rest of them, the young journalist followed the lady for the duration of her stay. Unlike them, however, he had nothing prepared as an offering and instead scribbled and scribbled descriptions of her every step in his notepad. The lady must have found him unique amongst the crowd of ready pleasers, for that night, she chose him to follow her back to her house.

  “‘It is only fitting that the house is as quaint and delicate as its owner,’ he penned. ‘Curtains dance in the evening wind, the air is graced with a scent of tea, and a single vase of flowers sits politely at the center of her dining table.’

  “As Wildes approached the door to open it for her, the fair lady tugged at his sleeve and shook her head. Instead of heading in, she walked towards the mountain of thick trees and unknown.

  “‘A stroll first?’ Wildes said.

  “The lady did not reply, so the journalist went after her. Together, they reached the peak of the said mountain, and he waited by the trees as she stepped out into a clearing, basking in the light of the full moon. She was ethereal, he wrote, as she stood there, glowing brighter than all the stars combined. By the amount Wildes scribbled, he must not have stood there staring for more than a minute, but to him, it felt like an eternity. At this point, the fair lady began stripping off her clothing. The sight of her naked silhouette and her gown being whisked away in the wind made Wildes’ heart race so much, he thought he was going to die. It was how he imagined the night was going to go, he admitted, but now that imagination was there in front of his eyes, he could only laugh at how pale his thoughts were compared to reality.

  “Carefully, he stepped into the clearing with her, reaching out in attempts to touch nirvana itself.

  “‘My fair lady,’ he breathed, not trusting his voice.

  “Hearing him, she turned to reveal her wholeness. At least, that’s what Wildes thought. Instead, he was greeted with a bosom covered in fur. The journalist looked up to her once goddess-like face in question only to be met with a nightmare.

  “‘Teeth protrude from a muzzle-like mouth stretching a meter long,’ he described. ‘Mangles of fur covered her entirety. If any of her pearl-like skin is still beneath it all, I see no hint of its existence. From her hands grows dangerous nails, each more stained with more red than the last. And her eyes. Her eyes that held the hearts of men now hold the screams of death.’

  “Max Wildes ran for his life after seeing what he had seen. Of course, the creature did not let him go so easily, but the journalist was smarter than all the love-sick men before him. He ran between trees and under shrubs to throw off the thing, and finally managed to get it tangled in som
e unforgiving shrubbery, but not before the creature grabbed a hold of his right wrist. It pulled him towards its awaiting teeth. Wildes knew he had to lose its grip on him or he will most certainly die. In panic, he pulled out a penknife from his pocket and sawed right through his arm.

  “Once free, he ran down the mountain, ignoring the howls of terror he left behind. He passed by the dainty little house at the foot of the mountain and saw that it wasn’t curtains flying in the wind, but pelts of human skin. It wasn’t tea in the air, but the metallic taste of blood. Last but not least, it wasn’t a flower in the vase, but a bouquet of bleeding hearts displayed on an ivory table.

  “That night, Wildes disappeared from the world leaving nothing behind but his notes. The next morning, the fair lady returned to town furious, surprising the men that resided there. She touched everyone on the wrist and left on each one a bracelet of black ink and a new order: find the man whose arm ends exactly at the mark they’ve just received and bring him to her. When she was done marking all of the men, she killed one right then and there, satisfying herself with his flesh. They were too in love with her to realize what she was doing. Instead, they all left their properties and belongings to do as she bid. It is said that to this day, you can still hear the lone howls of the fair lady looking and hunting for the one-handed journalist, Max Wildes.”

  The crowd is silent after Cain finished his tale. Finley is the first to break the silence.

  “That…” he begins, “sucked!”

  A cheer of agreement ripples among the boys.

  He continues, “How did he even write all that down while running away from the lady? And how did he mistake blood for tea and hearts for flowers?”

  “She put a magic spell on him!” Cain defends with a pout.

  Faith laughs along with the bickering brothers, but Tsukiko doesn’t miss the fright in Terena’s face as she eyes the tattoos on the boys’ right wrists.

  “Scared?” Jaiden teases.

  Tsukiko shakes her head. “Just… curious.”

  “Curious?”

  “Yeah, like every folktale has an underlying truth to them, right?”

  Jaiden looks at the mark on Tsukiko’s wrist. “I think Lee just made that one up.”

  “Maybe. And I guess I shouldn’t pry since curiosity killed the cat, right?”

  “And Max Wildes,” he adds humorously.

  “Cain didn’t say he died.”

  “He cut off his hand and was never found,” Jaiden objects. “He probably died of blood loss and fell into a river where his body got washed away.”

  “Wow, what are you, director of the detective bureau?” Tsukiko laughs.

  Jaiden poses with finger guns by his face. “I’m not saying that I’m not.”

  Tsukiko playfully rolls her eyes at her friend, and they continue to giggle about something else. This does not go unnoticed by Darren as he cuddles his quivering girlfriend. He raises a brow but leaves it at that.

  After all the marshmallows are gone, the lot decides to take a walk through the woods. “Time to free the soul,” a few of them sigh in relief. The phrase doesn’t make sense to Tsukiko, but she doesn’t question their inside joke.

  Still spooked by the story, Terena decides to stay with the cars, and Tsukiko, being injured, agrees to stay with her. When they have all left, Terena hops into the driver’s seat, hands on the ignition in case something happens.

  “Even Cain said it’s just something he made up,” Tsukiko tries for the tenth time, lounging on the hood.

  “I don’t care,” she pouts. “And I can’t believe Darren didn’t even volunteer to stay behind with me.”

  “It’s probably because I’m here,” Tsukiko says to herself more than to the paranoid woman in the vehicle.

  Terena seems pleased by the response nonetheless. “I guess I can forgive him if it’s because of that.”

  Just before Tsukiko can start questioning Terena’s thought process, a piercing howl can be heard clearly from somewhere in the mountain. Terena shrieks and ducks under the wheel.

  “It’s her!” she screams.

  Another howl sounds followed by a few others.

  “No, even if she were real, there should only be one lone howl, remember?” Tsukiko points out.

  “Maybe the men with the markings all turned into monsters too!”

  “So men with marks on their wrists like Darren.”

  Terena’s head pops back up. “Don’t you dare compare him to something as hideous as that,” she snarls.

  Like Darren. The thought jolts Tsukiko into action.

  “I’ll be right back,” she tells Terena.

  “Where are you going?” the other girl calls after her.

  “To see the fair lady,” she replies half-heartedly, looking for the pepper spray Jaiden gifted her with.

  Quietly, she limps towards where the sound came from. It cannot have been far, she thinks, shining her flashlight to ward off other nocturnal creatures. She’d be lying if she said she isn’t scared, but she had to find out if she was going insane or not. Eight minutes in, and she feels someone or something watching her. She ignores it at first, marking it up as paranoia, but when it steps on a branch, making it snap with a loud crack, she whips her light around and shines it into its eyes.

  “Who’s there?”

  A silver wolf snarls in pain at the sudden brightness, and Tsukiko feels her heart rate skyrocketing at the sight of its deadly teeth. This one has no marking on its wrist; could she have run into a real mountain wolf?

  “Hi there,” she says, voice quivering.

  It takes a step forward. Tsukiko wastes no time whipping out her spray and pointing it at the silver creature who cowers a few steps backwards.

  “Nurr,” it whimpers.

  Tsukiko hesitantly relaxes her clenched eyelids to see the wolf covering its face with its paws. Had it been sprayed before? How does it know what this human gadget does? Slowly, she lowers her weapon, and the wolf sits up, no longer trying to move towards her. Instead, Tsukiko approaches it this time, holding her hands up to where it can see them. The wolf doesn’t object to her approach, and instead ducks its head and wags its tail slightly.

  “Hi there,” Tsukiko says again, this time in a higher, more friendly tone.

  “Ooo.”

  When she is close enough, the silver beast stands and bumps its head against her belly.

  “Oof,” she laughs lightly. “Are you and your friends the ones howling?”

  Rather than answering, the wolf nudges and whines.

  “What do you want?” she asks rhetorically.

  “Pwweerrr.”

  “What?”

  It finally boops its nose against her hand and lowers its head to the perfect petting height for her. Tsukiko makes a noise of understanding and slowly extends her hand out.

  “D-did you want pets?” Its puppy eyes alleviate her fears, but she is still unsure.

  “Arf!”

  Tsukiko lets out a nervous chuckle and does as it asks. Satisfied, its tongue slips out of its large mouth and its tail creates a dust cloud behind it. This all stops, however, when another howl can be heard from somewhere rather near. The wolf perks up suddenly and disappears, leaving Tsukiko confused and ready to run too.

  The owner of this new howl doesn’t waste time sneaking around. It stands before Tsukiko and growls, ears flat and hairs raised.

  The girl recognizes him as the wolf from the previous encounter. She pinches herself and confirms that its wrist is indeed glowing, and with one look at her own, she sees the ink there glowing too.

  The canine suddenly takes a jump forward, and Tsukiko yelps in surprise. No one predicted though, the response that comes after.

  “Tsukiko? Tsukiko, was that you?” It’s Terena!

  The brown wolf unfurls its ears in a panic. Tsukiko turns towards the other girl’s voice to answer when two hands wrap around her—one on her mouth and the other around her waist—and pulls her behind a tree. This time, Tsukiko t
ries to scream for real, but a voice stops her.

  “Shhhh. Quiet!” Darren hisses.

  Tsukiko shifts her eyes down and sees the same glow she saw on the wolf on the man’s wrist. She nods cooperatively, ignoring the unwanted heat in her cheeks, and the two stand like statues against the tree.

  “Tsukiko?” she calls. “D-did the monster’s men catch you? A-are you here?” A few more steps. “I know that scream was yours! Don’t try to scare me now!” Another couple of steps. She’s relatively close now. Darren holds Tsukiko a little tighter. “Did you die? Oh my goodness, you died. I-I swear I didn’t have anything to do with it! Don’t come haunt me later!”

  She runs back to where she came from, and Darren breathes a sigh of relief. He releases his grip on Tsukiko but doesn’t step away.

  “You smell like Jaiden,” he comments, “but I guess you are around him a lot.”

  Tsukiko is bewildered that of all the things he could say, he chose to mention that. “Wait. So you are the fair lady from the story?”

  “No, we’re just werewolves.”

  “We?”

  “The whole fraternity,” Darren sighs, sinking to the floor. “I didn’t want to tell you, but Terena was going to find out, and I could be arrested and she executed if I let an outsider find out our identity.”

  “I’m an outsider too. What does that mean for me?”

  Darren scoffs. “Seriously? You were so ready to believe that I’m part wolf, but you can’t believe that we’re connected when you’ve got literal evidence printed on your wrist?”

  “Connected…” Tsukiko repeats. “As in—”

  “As in nothing,” Darren cuts in. He stands and begins walking back to camp.

  “As in soulmates,” she finishes, remembering Finley’s words.

  Darren flinches noticeably. “You read too many fairy tales. What are you doing out here alone with a sprained ankle anyway?”

  “I heard something, and I wanted to see if that wolf that saved me that night was you.”

  “Are you crazy?” he scowls.

  “Maybe… It is though, isn’t it? Thank you.”

  Instead of replying, he turns back into a wolf and lets out a howl into the air. Several approaching ones follow, and he dashes off. From her peripherals, Tsukiko sees a couple more canines pass by all heading towards camp. The silver one from before approaches and sweeps Tsukiko off her feet, making her sit on his back before following the others.