The Blood Moon Awakening

The Secret Underneath the Moon

Thinking,” I said, trying to sound convincing. Mia eyed me thoughtfully, but she didn’t press. “Are you sure you’re alright?” she asked me again. “Yes. I’m alright,” I answered, even though I wasn’t really sure about that myself.

I flipped back to the book, attempting to concentrate, but the words seemed heavy in a way they weren't supposed to be. As if they carried more weight than intended, as if they wanted to convey something deeper.

I shook my head gently, dismissing the idea. No, that can't be. It's just a tale, nothing more than that. I continued reading despite the unsettling presence lingering in the background. I couldn't afford to entertain it. Not at the risk of...

Going insane.

I went behind the school gates at the end of the day, something about the atmosphere didn't feel right, like the world around me had been altered somehow but only I could sense it.

Looking up into the starless night sky above me, I saw the round shape of the moon, bright and glowing silver in the darkness, and I suddenly realized I felt uneasy for no particular reason.

I told myself I must have simply been exhausted after school and needed some sleep, but before long, the same strange sensation I had experienced earlier returned with renewed force, crowding my thoughts like it refused to be ignored. I knew I shouldn't head down the deserted, forest-lined path ahead, but without realizing what I was doing, I set off towards it anyway.

As soon as my feet made contact with the soil, everything seemed to change. The atmosphere became colder and crisper, and all the sounds around me seemed to dim out except for the sound of my breaths.

With each step, I became more aware of how loud it sounded, as if my entire being became hyper-aware of my surroundings. I gulped down hard and scanned my surroundings with my eyes, muttering the word "nothing" under my breath. But I couldn’t believe what I was saying because it wasn’t nothing that was happening; it was almost as if someone was watching me.

Then there were sudden sounds that seemed low and near, as if someone was whispering into my ear or something rustled in the leaves of the trees around me. My body stiffened up on the spot, and my heartbeat thumped wildly inside my ribcage.

I heard that noise again, louder now, and the crackle of a snapping branch. An awful, suffocating fear started to rise inside me. "Hello?" I whispered hoarsely. There was no response.

There was not silence either, rather, it seemed that something was there in the stillness, lurking just outside of vision. I took an instinctive step backward, feeling my hands balling into fists as my brain searched for some sense of logic and something familiar, but found none. It started moving then, fast, too fast, and from the shadows emerged something that stood before me.

The breath froze in my chest I stumbled back my bag slipped off of my shoulder. My eyes were wide opene, staring in horror as my brain tried desperately to make sense of what I was seeing. It appeared to be humanoid, at least to begin with, but the longer I gazed, the less and less like a person it became. It stood awkwardly, like an animal ready to leap, and its breathing was heavy. Most disturbing of all were its eyes, which seemed to glow faintly.

“Back off,” I shouted, but my voice was shaky, unable to hide the fear that was building up inside me. It ignored me and lunged without a second’s hesitation.

It happened so quickly that by the time I processed what was happening, my body had already responded, and I had moved away. My heart was beating rapidly that it almost seemed like it was hurting, my breaths ragged as I tried to catch my breath.

No human being could react or move as quickly as it did, nor could it have made such a sound. Terror gripped me, and I tried to run, the panic making me run faster than before.

My arms were scratched by branches as I forced myself through the path, gasping as air rushed into my lungs. “This is not real!” I screamed in my head as I heard heavy footfalls chasing me. It was getting closer, much too close, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to outrun it soon enough. But then something else kicked in.

It was just like that spark that caught, small yet very strong. It grew quickly from there. Everything became sharper to me. Painfully sharper. My ears picked up on even the smallest things—the sound of leaves crunching under my feet, my own heart beating rapidly, and the breathing of the creature behind me.

There were smells all around me that I did not know the source of but that made my senses go crazy from. I felt different inside. Lighter and stronger than ever before. As I pushed myself forward, I found that I was moving at a pace faster than any normal person could run. Something began to take root in me, and I tried to push it away. "No…"