Where Did the Moon Go?

 I had never been so lost, and of all the places to be lost… the suburbs? A true forest, a true city, either would do. You can prowl urban sprawl as easily as the wild. But this? Far too civilized.

Leave it to that crazy cousin Vinny to give me bad information. I couldn’t even get a good view of the moon. One night I even caught myself howling at a street lamp. If anyone saw me I’d never live it down. 

I got bitten almost a year ago, and I’ve been on the run since. Me and my buddies were out drinking outside of a small town where I grew up. Someone came up with the fool idea of tryin’ to put down the crazy old mutt that the Rileys owned, but we were all scared of old man Riley and his shotgun. For good reason too. The old man was nearly blind but he was so trigger happy that the Sheriff’s office had been up there maybe half a dozen times to tell him to lay off. The mutt was mean as the devil to everyone but him. So we took it upon ourselves to do a public service, drunk as we were, sometime after midnight.

Wouldn’t you know they all chickened out and wanted me to go. I was just about to tell them off, even with a pool of green on it, but then they made it a point of honor. Fool that I am, I couldn’t walk away after that. 

Funny thing is, if I had believed in all that supernatural voodoo about witches and ghosts and demons, I never woulda gone. But at the time, didn’t feel I had any reason to. No sir, no full moon or tales of beyond would have given me pause. And so I went.

And yet, when I finally got my nerve and arrived at the top of the hill, the old man was passed out drunker then we was. Problem solved right? All I had to do was hold the gun straight for two seconds and do the deed. But no sir, that wasn’t in the cards that night. It was only then I realized how quiet it was. Old mutt should’ve been barking up a storm, with me so close and smelling so loud. Yet silence. Then I catch the faintest growl, more of a plea then a threat. 

This was beginning to shake my drunken nerves. Still, like a fool I pressed forward, my curiosity unshakable. Closer I crept, till I was on his porch. A bottle of Jim on the table, his snoring body collapsed on a rocking chair. He still clutched the shotgun. Gently I approached. Gentler still uncocking the hammer. Open clicked the chamber door. I barely breathed as I shakily withdrew the shells and snapped the chamber shut.

The barely audible growl was coming from round back. I tossed the shells into the grass and made my way around the house. The growling grew louder. 

The mutt was sprawled out on the grass. I pulled my piece and held it steady as a drunken man could. Yet as I crept forward, staring down the creature in my sights, I noticed he wasn’t looking at me, but towards the bushes on my right. 

And that was when it bit me, out of nowhere, leaping from the bush and rushing foward, its form like a wolf but larger.

©️ 2024, Accountec, LLC

Contemplations from Zee Rafters

They think I did not know. Yet even an old bat with a hangover could hear them. My father always told Vlad, verk that sonar, my boy, that’s what makes the Drakuls who we are, our famous (sometimes infamous) listening skills. You never know what you might catch.

Yes, yes, I knew the girl was there. The why escaped me at first. Yet even with that blabbering dolt carrying on below, even without twitching, Vlad got the gist of the conversation. Strange, they were to me. Strangers that seemed stranger then Vlad himself, which of course I found impressive. Perhaps my arrival was vell timed, if a bit undignified.

Zee legged one was more irritating in his oddness. Vlad tried to give him the benefit of the mortality. Life can be rough, I don’t know how they do it. It mystified me how anyone could choose to live here. It vasn’t dark enough, cold enough, and was made entirely from wood and fiber. Verse, it was a long fly from zee nearest cave or castle. 

Vhile the little crazy one fumed, I made a mental note to see if the woods they had mentioned had any caves. I needed to stretch my sonar. And you never know, the bat next door could be a vampire too, you never judge a bat by his hide…

Vhy did I stay? Believe Vlad, I thought about it at great length. Perhaps zee humans had good veins, Vlad said. Perhaps Vlad vas in a rut. Perhaps I had been drinking too much blood. An undeath can be quite long. Vhatever the reason, it was a velcome change of pace. Also, Vlad was determined not to leave on such an undignified manner as I arrived.

The sun is shining. I should sleep...

©️ 2024, Accountec, LLC