Blood Moon

Chapter 1: He Who Was Blind

"Did you hear?" Ms. Gossip asked in her usual loud voice.

"Hear what?" Ms. Gossip's friend inquired, looking interested.

"A murder happened in the Snowville mountains yesterday." Ms. Gossip said, looking anxious and excited at the same time.

"Really? That's scary! My father works around those mountains."

"Oh, don't worry. Your father's office is, like, on the opposite side of the house where it happened." Said Ms. Gossip, assuring her friend of his father's safety with a statement that should have no calming effect whatsoever.

"That's a relief." Yet, Ms. Gossip's friend bought that as something reassuring.

I mean, yes, the place his father worked at was on the opposite side of the place the murder happened but that should have meant nothing in a town so small where getting from one side to the other side of northern mountains needed a mere 15-minutes-ride on a bicycle.

'But oh well, if you want to live with a false sense of security, be my guest!' I played a scenario in my mind where I said that to his face but then decided it's better to not actually say it.

"You know what's really weird though?" 

As I was about to exit the classroom though, Ms. Gossip opened her mouth again, grabbing her friend's and my attention once more.

"The police found no murder weapon." Said Ms. Gossip.

Hearing so, not gonna lie, I felt a little disappointed. I had expected something weirder than that, I guess.

"No weapon? How did the murder happen then?"

"Dunno but I heard the only things they found at the murder site was, like, a flashlight ... and I think some jewelry or something. Anyway, the only things I know are things I heard from sis."

'Her "sis"? Is her sister in police or something?' I wondered for a moment but then decided that it was not worth spending time pondering over and left.

From my classroom to the shoe locker, and from the school gate to my house, I overheard many people talking about that same thing, that same incident.

Countdown to Blood Moon: 05

*****

I guess, for a small place like that town, an incident like murder is too big of a deal. I am not criticizing one or the other but in a big city, something like that would probably not even matter to anyone not living in the same neighborhood. 

I can only draw that conclusion from the memories I have of living in a bigger city as a child though, so it's not like I am an expert on the matter.

Regardless, there, in the town known as Snowville, a murder happening in a part of it was a big deal, big enough for everyone to have heard about it within a day.

"Oi, Ed, isn't your house near the house the murder happened?"

And, well, "everyone" unfortunately included a guy by the name of Dr. Stupid; in other words, the guy who said that line to me as soon as he saw me enter the school grounds the next day.

"Yeah!" I answered and started walking without waiting for him to say anything else, the reason being that I already knew what he was going to say.

"Then didn't you see who did it? You must know something."

'(A) It happened late at night when most of the world, including me, was sleeping. (B) My house was near that place, not next to it. And (C), even if I did know something, I have no reason to tell anyone except the police about it, and definitely, no reason to tell you.' I once again ran a simulation in my head where I said so to him but in reality, did not say anything and just kept walking.

As I did so, Dr. Stupid kept yelling at me for ignoring him or something until the bell rang and he had to go to his class.

Countdown to Blood Hour: 04

*****

"ATTENTION, ALL STUDENTS! ATTENTION, ALL STUDENTS!"

After school that day, an announcement was made.

"IN LIGHT OF THE RECENT INCIDENT AT SNOWVILLE MOUNTAINS, A CITY-WIDE CURFEW HAS BEEN ISSUED. ALL STUDENTS AND TEACHERS ARE TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES BEFORE 6 P.M."

'Isn't that a little overboard?' I thought.

'It would make sense if there had been more than one incident but, with no disregard for the severity of the crime, isn't it still a little weird to put a curfew already?' I thought to myself.

'Could it be-' And then a possibility hit me.

What if that murder was connected to some other incidents that happened somewhere else? What if this was a part of a series of murders that began somewhere else?

Considering that a day and a half had passed since the incident, the police have had a fair amount of time to investigate. So, what if they had recognized it as the work of some serial killer of some sort?

Then, it would have made complete sense to force a curfew.

I wondered about it as it certainly seemed to make sense. But, not being a super detective high schooler like the ones seen in anime but just a normal high schooler, all I could do was speculate.

Countdown to Blood Hour: 03

*****

Later, at night, while I was carefreely lying on my bed, thinking about those speculations as if that's the most normal thing for a high schooler to do, I saw a bright light flash through my windows.

To find out where it came from, I got up from my bed and went to the windows and peeked through them.

I couldn't tell which direction it came from but it was definitely something that came from the ground. But, as I tried peeking through, I couldn't really see anything out of the ordinary.

The streets were quiet and barely lit by the unevenly placed street lights, the nearby houses all had their lights turned off as per the usual for that time of the night, the leaves of the ridiculously big neem tree kept swaying because of the night wind and the sense of peace I felt every time I looked at that scenery was also present.

If there was something not present, it was the obliviousness required by me to think that everything was fine.

The fact that I saw a flash of light through my window but everything "looked" to be normal was ever the more suspicious. If something was wrong or different that remotely explained that flash of light, I may have dropped my suspicions but after seeing that scenery, I couldn't just act like I didn't know something was up; like I couldn't feel that someone was out there, hiding in the darkness, probably looking straight at me as I try to look at them.

Even just considering all of that changed the sense of peace I was feeling into eerieness rather quickly.

So, in trying to be cautious, I waited there, not doing anything but not taking my eyes off the streets either. 

I waited for a long while.

But, frustratingly, nothing happened.

Countdown to Blood Hour: 02  

*****

The incident of that night caused me to be sleep deprived the next day. 

As would be expected in that state, I was not able to concentrate in any of the classes as I eagerly waited for the school to end so I could go home.

I am pretty sure Dr. Stupid tried to confront and insult me sometime in the day but my brain wasn't working well enough to recall when that was and what exactly happened when he did. 

With the condition I was in, as soon as the school ended, I probably immediately took my bag and headed home.

On the way, I remember having heard some people talking about the murder incident, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get home and lie down.

Back then, I did not notice that my desperate desire to sleep was more overwhelming than it should have been even if I had not slept for more than a day.

What I did notice however was that there was someone strange on the bus I took to get home, someone strange who kept glaring at me with bloodshot eyes, and no one else seemed to notice him.

On that bus full of healthy people, the sickly me alone noticed that man. The image of him staring at me was received by my retina alone. And even in the hardly functioning state that my brain was in, that image was burned into my brain without a single glitch.

Countdown to Blood Hour: 01

*****

A flashlight was found on the murder site, which was rather close to my house. 

I saw a flash of light through my window and then I started feeling so drowsy the next day as if I had been awake for more than a week. 

Even though it was so hard to concentrate on anything, one really creepy and suspicious guy's image gets burned into my brain.

And the flash came right as I was wondering about my theory of the murder being one in the many others that may have happened, possibly committed by a serial killer.

All the clues were right in front of me, but I couldn't figure out the mystery of it all.

And so, as I closed my eyes to quelch my brain's thirst for sleep, I lost the first round.

Countdown to Blood Hour: 00