Chapter 4 The Blood Moon

Chapter 4

The Blood Moon

Nancy sat on the bus, staring at the door directly across from her. She felt frustrated and there was nothing she could do about her leave. The morning hadn’t given her the answers she wanted and now she was out for two weeks.

As soon as she’d made it back to the ward she sat at her desk and began pouring over the hospital rules and regulations. She paused only to eat her cold, and French fry free, lunch. She was going to have a discussion with Jim, but now was not the time.

Flipping through the rule book she found herself annoyed that there was no way to fight the mandatory leave following an encounter. Not even the loss of the staff would let her stay.

The bus stopped and she stood to get off, she could see a mother and her child getting on at the front as she stepped onto the sidewalk. She has seen them often, but she had never bothered to talk to them. She never really talked to anyone outside of a work setting.

Instead she turned and walked up the hill towards her apartment. The building had been a new development when she’d moved in. Now scaffolding stood around the front entrance, another attempt to turn back the tide of urban decay which seemed to surround the place. As she got closer she noted that they’d walled off the front entrance with a draping thick plastic.

She forced her way through and began to key in her code on the door lock. Behind her the plastic crinkled back into place, though for a moment she thought she heard a footstep. She spun, looking high and low, her hand falling reflexively into the purse to grip the stun gun hidden there. There wasn’t anyone though, so she pressed the final key and entered the building.

She lived on the north side of the building on the fourth floor, the top corner at the back of the building, which was almost ideal. The location left her out of the general foot traffic and away from the road. The problem was that the elevator had broken a year ago and she felt exhausted when she got to her door.

When she reached the door she found herself pausing to catch her breath. This whole getting old thing was for the birds, she wished she could go back to prevent herself from signing the contract to buy the apartment. They had billed it as a condo, but it was an apartment plain and simple, it had none of the perks that all the newer condos had. She didn’t even have any kind of security system despite the increased crime rate in her neighborhood, just her keys and the code on the front door.

Shrugging she pulled the keys out of her purse and turned them in the lock. She started to open the door when she felt the door push back from the other side.

“Chester, would you get away from the door,” she said. She was answered by her orange tabby trying to nudge his way out the door. “You know I don’t feed you here, so get your butt out of the way.”

He stepped out into the hall enough to jump against her leg, almost falling over on his side, before running back inside purring. This was his greeting every morning, but still she wished that he would listen. She dropped her purse on the table inside the door and took off her shoes.

She felt drained, as she usually did after a fight, and was thankful that she had needed to take a shower at work. That meant that she could collapse into her bed without having to wait for her hair to dry. It wasn’t every day that she was happy that she had been attacked.

Chester continued rubbing against her legs as she made her way to the kitchen. He always had dry food on the washing machine, but she gave him wet food when she got home, it made him a nuisance until he got it. It was better than coming home to an empty house though, better than coming home to memories of what might have been.

As she made her way through the kitchen she noticed a light blinking on the answering machine and wondered who it might be. She was lucky to get one message a month, and that was usually from her mother who would call while she was asleep. She walked over to hit the button, wondering why her mother didn’t call her cell phone or the desk number at work. If it was important enough to leave a message, it was important enough for her to call either of those numbers.

A shrill beep, followed by the robotic voice greeted her with the message. “You-have-one-unheard-message. New-message-”

A woman's voice began speaking, one that she recognized all too well. She was suddenly glad that she hadn’t been home to take the call. “Hi Nancy, this is Cheryl. I’m calling to remind you that you have a date tonight.”

Nancy rolled her eyes and grimaced, she had promised to go on a date tonight hadn’t she. If there were two things that she could count on it was the sun rising, and Cheryl doing everything in her power to set her up.

“I know this is a blind date, but Danny asked me tell you the restaurant details for the meeting tonight. I secretly think that he’s worried that you won’t show,” Cheryl said. Perhaps he wasn’t a complete idiot after all, she would love nothing more than to not show up.

“He understands that you work at ten thirty so he figured seven thirty would be enough time for dinner. He wants to take you to that new Greek place, or was it Tapas?” Cheryl continued. She mispronounced the word three times and then tried again.

Nancy rolled her eyes as she spooned half of the can into the food dish. Chester jumped up and looked to her expectantly.

“You’re not going to make me pet you, are you Chester?” she said. He only looked to her, waiting for her to extend her hand. “You’re spoiled you know…”

“Anyways, the restaurant is the new one in Eastland Center. I figured that would be good since you take the bus generally. He offered to pick you up. Why don’t you just tell him where you live?” Cheryl continued. Nancy walked over to the button, ready to press the delete button. “I still think you have trust issues girl. But hey, don’t stand this one up, he’s really nice and we need to go on more double dates.”

Nancy realized that the message still had a minute left but knew Cheryl well enough to know what the rest of it would be. She pressed the button.

“Message-Deleted, You-Have-No-New-Messages,” the machine interrupted.

“Honestly Cheryl, you need to learn how to cut to the chase,” she said. She placed the cat food lid on the container and placed it in the fridge. As she walked past the washing machine she noticed that Chester was eating happily this time. Maybe she only needed to pet him to start his motor? Was she just some organic starter for his motor? The thought amused her more than the thought of the date did.

“Trust issues,” she scoffed as she pulled her shirt off. She hung it on the hanger she’d left in the doorway of the closet. She added the scrub pants to the hanger before pulling on the pajamas she’d left sitting on the corner of her dresser.

“Cheryl doesn’t know what it’s like. She’s never been in my shoes,” she assured herself. She walked to the bed and turned down the covers, her only regret was that she didn’t have work as an excuse to get out of the date tonight.

Chester joined her as soon as she was under the covers. He curled up along her side, as he always did, taking up the half of the bed that remained vacant. That side of the bed which had never been full. Her thoughts began to drift, as they often did, back to the night of the Blood Moon, to the night of her Honeymoon.

* * * * *

She walked down the beach, not a tropical beach, just the beach at a resort in Minnesota, but it felt tropical. It was late September, but the temperature was in the high seventies.

“I don’t know why you want to be down here,” Devin said. He stood with his hands at his side, palms towards her.

She grinned back over her shoulder, “You know we’re newly weds, we’re supposed to do romantic things like walk on the beach.”

“Yeah, in Hawaii, not in Minnesota where there are mosquitoes trying to eat me alive,” he called back at her.

She kept walking, ignoring his worries about mosquitoes. The beach was empty, all the summer tourists had gone home. She couldn’t hear voices of anyone. She paused and turned back to Devin.

“You know, six months ago you wanted nothing more than to get me alone on the beach. Now you’re complaining because of a few bugs.”

She threw her shoes over her shoulder and waited for a reply. He was walking over now, making his way over to take her hand.

“You do have a point,” he said taking her hand. He pulled her close and she could feel how warm he was as she wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She felt wonderfully, blissfully, secure. Rolling her head onto his shoulder they continued to walk down the beach.

The scenery was beautiful. Many of the leaves were beginning to turn yellow, and the last of the summer flowers still held some faint color. Above the pines the moon dominated the horizon, making her feel like she was on some strange new world. She was on a strange new world though, the adventure of marriage with the man she loved.

“Devin,” she said softly.

He looked to her before responding. “Yes dear?”

Hearing him say it brought a smile to her lips. “You know, if you’re feeling adventurous, I’d like to try something.”

He stopped dead in his tracks. “You mean… here?”

She watched as he motioned all around him. This wasn’t exactly what she thought. “I was thinking more in that small patch of grass surrounded by trees. I don’t want to get my dress too messed up after all.”

This seemed to put a spring in Devin’s step. She knew he’d looked forward to the wedding night, they had waited, and this was turning out exactly the way that she was planned.

“I came down on the beach last night while the other girls were drinking,” she said. “We walked the beach and I thought that it looked perfect.”

“I was wondering about that. We spent most of the night at the bar, everyone insisting that I needed to drink more,” he said. They continued to walk in silence until they reached the grass. “They seemed to think that since you didn’t sleep with me before we got married, you wouldn’t afterward.”

She smiled, staring up into his eyes, and then kissed him. “I hope I can show you just how much I want you.”

She turned and moved over to the grass, while not wearing her large frilly wedding dress, this evening gown had been expensive. She rolled it off her shoulders and let it fall to the ground. She looked over her shoulder again, to see his eyes wide and his hands already working to pull his shirt off.

Adjusting the dress to lay beneath them, she sat on top of it. He followed quickly and fell to his knees in front of her. His shirt fell to the ground, he no longer seemed worried about the mosquitoes.

They made love passionately. When he finally lay on the ground next to her, his head resting on her chest, they both looked into the sky watching the moon and the stars.

“Was that okay,” he asked her. She could feel his jaw move on her breast and she loved the feeling. The feeling of closeness as they lay together felt amazing, this was what she’d looked forward to. While the sex had been wonderful, it was the close contact, skin to skin, that she found herself relishing.

“I couldn’t have imagined it any better,” she said to him. Across the lake she could hear a loon calling.

“I think all of the talk from the guys last night had me worried,” he said.

“About what?” she asked. “I have now had one lover, it’s all I need. I don’t want to have to compare you to anyone, so you’ll always be my favorite.”

He hugged her tightly, pulling her closer to him. She craved his warmth as the fall air had lost it’s warmth.

“Nancy?” he asked. The tone of his voice wasn’t the same sleepy voice he’d used moments before.

“Yes Devin? Or should I call you hubby now?” she opened her eyes to see him pointing to the night sky.

Looking to where she was pointing she saw what he was pointing to. Above them the surface of the moon had begun to dribble like syrup over a scoop of ice cream. She wanted to say that it was black, but as more of the moon began to be covered the color became a deep red. Around the moon, as though in a halo, she began to see shooting stars streaking along the atmosphere.

“What do you suppose…?” she began to ask. But as she did two things happened almost simultaneously. The first was an explosion over head. While it wasn’t big enough to level trees, it was big enough to cause every bird in the surrounding area to take flight. The second thing was at the moment of detonation Devin started convulsing.

He fell backwards, his body thrashing through the grass and pine needles. Her nurse training kicked in and she quickly cleared away anything she could to make sure he didn’t hurt himself. Try as she might, she couldn’t get him up on his side though. She knew that she’d have to ride it out, but the moment of comfort and security she’d felt only moments before were gone.

Had he ever mentioned being epileptic? Was this something which had been brought on by the explosion? She knew that it had been loud, but no louder than a finale at a fireworks show. Perhaps it had something to do with the drinking last night? Had he been dehydrated?

The questions continued to pour through her head, as he still convulsed on the ground. She stood up and picked up her dress, covering herself while trying to reclaim a bit of warmth. As soon as he stopped she’d need to go get help, a part of her wanted to run now, but she had to wait until she was sure that he was all right.

The moon had only a little bit of white left around the bottom edge when he stopped shaking. She didn’t know how long the seizure had lasted, but he finally stopped. It could have been minutes, or it could have been hours. Already she felt the cold of the night seeping into her bones and had lost all track of time. The moon hadn’t moved much, but staring up at it made her skin crawl.

She held his hand and then checked his pulse, and then checked it again. This arm was cold and she wasn’t getting anything. She began to panic, this wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen, this wasn’t supposed to be the death do us part, not for years. Changing arms she felt for a pulse again hoping that maybe, since that was the arm he was laying on before the seizure, the pulse was fainter there. There wasn’t anything in her training that told her it would happen, but it could have happen, it made some sense in her frazzled mind.

Finally after getting no pulse from the wrist she went for the neck, hoping that a bigger artery would give her a read. At first there was nothing, but then, faintly, she felt what she needed. There was a single beat, followed by a second.

Her training went out the window and she found herself shaking him to wake him up. She straddled him and shook as softly as she could. She wanted to pull him up, to kiss him deeply, but now wasn’t the time. She needed to see if he would gain consciousness, and in that moment she realized she was going about it all wrong.

Carefully she laid him back on the ground, she was on the verge of moving off him when his eyes fluttered open.

“Devin!” she shouted. He looked more surprised that conscious, his face confused, she began to worry that he might have a concussion. Tears began to fill her eyes faster than she could blink them out. What if those sudden movements had caused him pain?

He placed his arms underneath him and began to sit up, her eyes closed in joy. She put the knee that she’d lifted up back between his legs and pulled him close into an embrace.

“I was so worried that I’d hurt you,” she cried through closed eyes. His skin felt cool, but his mouth felt warm on her shoulder. “I’m so glad to see you’re okay, if you’re feeling up to it we can walk back…”

She was interrupted as he bit down on her shoulder. She cried out as his teeth pierced her flesh, and he began to worry the skin back and forth.

“Stop it Devin!” she yelled, trying to force him away. His teeth held firm and his fingers gripped her arms and began to dig in. Feeling panic take the place of both sadness and joy she struck at him. First trying to break free of his grip, but as he began to pull back she hit him in the face. The first punch struck him on the ear, the second the jaw which only made her pain worse. When she brought her hands down on his nose he finally let go, momentarily stunned. She stood and began to run, the blood pumping furiously from the patch of skin that he’d all but ripped off.

Looking over her shoulder she saw him leap to his feet, his balance unsteady at first. She turned to watch her footing, hoping that she had enough of a head start. A voice in the back of her head screamed that he’d gone insane. Perhaps he’d become a zombie. The quieter voice of reason was too concerned with making sure she didn’t trip over a rock or root. It was when it began to concern itself with calming her mind that she tripped, not over a root, but over her own feet.

Sand sprayed around her and she felt the wound begin to sting as the dirt found a home inside. She struggled to her feet, her arms felt like rubber, and her feet tried to run before she was even upright. Two half-step, half-dives, and she was back in the ground. This time the sand from the beach stinging her cheek.

Behind her she could here a guttural groan as he gave chase, a look behind her and she knew she had to fight. He was in the air as she spun to the side, narrowly escaping the full weight of him. He landed on his knees and gripped her hands before going back for another bite.

She tried to struggle, but he was strong, this wasn’t something that she had ever expected that she would need to do. Her fiance, now husband, was someone she loved and never had planned to physically fight. He seemed focused on only one thing though, the patch of blood on her shoulder that he’d opened moments before.

Her tears began to flow unashamedly, and she found herself hoping that maybe he would kill her. The night hadn’t gone the way she had expected at all. They were supposed to go back to the room and drink champagne. Instead he bit down again pulling back on the skin, as though he wanted to pick her up by it, she felt it rip free as she began to scream as loudly as her lungs would allow.

Devin sat up, chewing the meat which he’d pulled from her shoulder. He stared at the horizon, his eyes reflecting the the moon.

Voices sounded from down the beach and his eyes darted over to them. She continued screaming, and they began to run, hurrying to help this strange woman out.

Devin’s head turned to towards the newcomers before he turned and ran, his naked body disappearing into the woods. That was the last she’d heard from him. He’d disappeared without a trace twenty years ago. She understood now that the man she had loved had turned that night. He’d died alone in the woods reduced to a quivering animal.