Chapter 4
375 Words
The moonless night was chillingly quiet,
save the waves that lapped at Lake Erie’s bank.
Sitting alone in the sand, I sensed movement
from the brush, and my heart suddenly sank.
With a pain-stricken limp, a beast edged toward me
as the sky fell black with the palette of a heavy storm.
I’m not sure how I knew it, but I was certain
somehow this creature was Nova in a wolf’s form.
As she stumbled closer, I discerned a glinting object
and realized it was the dead moon in her jaws.
And suddenly, the heavens shattered, and every star
fell from the sky and began gashing at her paws.
Arriving at my feet, she bowed
to rest the dead moon on the ground,
and throwing back her head, she opened her mouth
to howl, but only blood poured out—not sound.
In an agonized snarl, she pulled back her lips,
revealing her perfect fangs had been removed.
My wolf sister whimpered like a helpless
pup—how could she be soothed?
I took her in my arms as her
blood soaked both our hair.
“Give me your pain now,” I said.
“It’s too much for only one to bear.”
I kissed her forehead,
pressed her brow to mine.
“I’ll find who did this,” I whispered.
“They will pay in time.”
And at that moment, her wolf body
exploded into starlight.
A supernova of sparkling dust
burst up into the night.
Without the moon, the lake
was a flat glass plate—
no gravity to charm its swells,
no waves to undulate.
The new wolf stars lit my reflection as I
waded into the cold water, still as could be,
and there, from its mirrored surface, a dark,
terrifying form peered back at me.
Slowly, I bent closer to see its face was
not mine but some twisted version of my own.
I inhaled sharply to speak but realized I had
no words—I was so utterly afraid and all alone.
It was then my phantom reflection spoke instead:
“I have a message for you, if I may,”
the voice hissed back, “Beware, Rosalyn.
There’s something foul and evil on its way.”
- Writer
