Full Moon
by Ryan Span
Her ragged panting ripped apart the silence, and panicked footfalls rustled the wet leaves upon the forest floor. The late autumn air was light and icy, and moonlight painted shadows upon dark, imposing boughs that seemed to radiate an ominous evil all their own. A howl echoed over the treetops, one that chilled her to her very bones when the night's cold could not. Terror gripped her heart, choking the barely-breathable air from her lungs. She stumbled and fell over a slimy tree-root, but dragged her dirty self up again and returned to her desperate run. Another howl, closer now, too close... A cacophony of voices surfaced in her head, screaming from all sides, repeating the same thing over and over again. She recognized them as primal alarm, an ancient fear long-vanished now reawakened.
Run away, run away, run away!
The woods were silent and brooding, as not a creature stirred in the night, save for her and the nameless fear that pursued, sending every living being cowering into their holes. She glanced upwards and over her shoulder, the moon a round face bearing a grin of venomous malice. Her legs were scratched, her boots torn, long fingers of branch and bramble ripping the flimsy clothes to tatters. No matter how quickly she ran, no matter how determined or terrified, He had caught her scent. She knew this to be true when a third howl sounded only a few meters behind, yet dared not look. The voices raised in volume, deafening her to the outside world.
Run away, run away, run away!
"I'm running!!" she cried, redoubling her effort, forcing her legs to move despite her exhaustion. Stumbling into a clearing, she froze as a swarm of birds woke and flew screaming into the sky in pure terror. Again the moon stood revealed like a prince of darkness, an evil brother to the bright, burning sun. With a giant leap the hazy form of her pursuer entered the clearing, sending a powerful howl up to greet the light. Every fiber of her body screamed, her heart raced, but still she was rooted to the ground. He approached, a slow, inhuman gait to His steps. His eyes were blacker than the night itself, mirrors of His black Heart, and He locked her gaze in His.
Run away, run away, run away!
She could not. She wanted to, more than anything, but she could not move. Even as He rose to His full height and roared to the sky. Even as His sharp claws came down upon her. Even as He tore out her heart and feasted upon it. She still stood there, eyes wide, staring at the thing that knew no name, a huge fur-bearing creature with the lower body and face of a wolf, yet the arms and torso of a man. Something about Him puzzled her, but it was not so much curiosity as shock or sorrow. Or pity. Black eyes regarded her expression with an alien curiosity, and as His face rested but an inch from hers, the black-in-black turned to a very human steel-blue for an instant and He blanched. Her expression shifted again to grief, or horror. Or pity.
Run away, run away, run away!
He turned His back and at last she fell to the ground, granted sweet release from unnatural life by His failing attention. It had been so strange to watch her flesh being eaten while not feeling a thing, and living on when she should be dead. But now she at last succumbed to the gaping wound in her chest and exhaled a last, hesitant time. Steel-blue eyes again regarded her now-dead body, and tears welled up inside them. She had recognized Him in her last moments. He had prayed she wouldn't, but in vain. This second of self-consciousness, of realizing what He was and what He had done, pained Him like no wound ever had. His love lay dead upon a bed of wet leaves, and now the blackness crept back into His soul. In response, primal voices raised their call within His Head.
Run away, run away, run away!
The scream of a tortured Heart and a wounded soul carried far over the trees, but the full moon remained unmoved. The nameless terror again moved within the treetops, black eyes searching for their next prey among the trees. But from that hour forward, the irises shone a defiant steel blue among the darkness and the night, and the man within bided His time. He would win His freedom from the shadow. And then He would take His revenge.
Inspired by the song: Sonata Arctica - FullMoon.
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