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

Ashes, Dust, and the Others

 The Nerbe of dat bat. Spidey scrub and scrub and di floor is still stained.

He had been fussing about Vlad for what seemed like hours, scrubbing, stopping, crawling back and forth fuming, and on and on. You’d think with eight legs he could scrub faster. 

Sunlight was streaming through the window and vlad hung from a rafter, fast asleep ever since Spider chased him off the floor. The critter was so in a tizzy that he didn’t even notice me slip out the window.

My name is Jess, though they sometimes call me Dust. I’m almost 16, but I left home years ago. Even before my fading, when I became invisible, people didn’t notice me much. I can be very quiet.

I saw on the roof for a few minutes, looking out towards the Southern horizon. It was beautiful, all blue Skye, wisps of clouds, and sunlight above trees, houses, and streets. The people of the world were coming out. 

“Almost time.” A shingle said. Gradually the outlines of a lizard became greener.

Jess smiled. Below, she could see Diamond exercising barefoot on the grass, the tips of her fingers rising to the sky, her eyes closed in meditation.

Jess slid to the edge of the roof and carefully dropped down. A young man leaned against the wall, a lighter in his hand and a smile on his face. He met her eyes and gave the slightest nod but said not a word. The two of them could communicate with nothing more than a look, so intertwined they were that people rarely spoke of one without mentioning the other, closer even then most siblings. They belonged together. Where there was Ashes, there would forever be Dust.

“So tell us the plan, Jenn.” Sarah was walking towards Jess and the old picnic table splintering on the concrete slab. 

The lizard ascended the table and stood, clearing her throat. Everyone sat.

“I’m told there’s a new face in town causing some panic around the woods by the lake. Disturbing the neighborhood. There’s been various reports.”

Ashes stifled a yawn. Jess smiled. Jenn cleared her throat and scowled at Ashes.

“I asked Sarah to poke around.”

Diamond spoke softly, her almost colorless eyes as peaceful as a mountain lake. “Whoever they may be, they’re being careful, and no one knows why. They cover their tracks. But passersby say there is a presence watching them, and items randomly disappear or move. A group of neighbors have offered a cash reward.”

“That’s where we come in. I’ll scout the River while Sarah and Jess set the trap. Ashes, if they flush, you are the noose. Clear?”

Diamond nodded. “Let’s go catch a thief.”

©️ 2024, Accountec, LLC

In the Beginning...

 Somewhere in the Carolinas

Spidey found this attick on my own, I'll hab you kno.

Then came the others, much to Spidey's chagrin. Yees, dey can be useful, but an arachnid needs his space. Cobwebs to hang, wardrobe to store. 

A Spider's werk is nebber done. Deese humans... clumsy, but big. They built a house and did nuttin wit di attick! Spidey fix. 

All Spidey wanted was to bring the attick to its full glory, arachnid style. It was going just fine, tank you berry dutch, but den one night Spidey woke to a fluttering, and there he was, lying on the floor...

    Vlad take it from here. You tell it wrong. Peter Vladimir Drakul II, Prince of the Northern Wood, Wallachia. Yes, yes, I know your question. Drakul, like Dracula? He's my father's father's second cousin. Why he mutilated the name, I do not know. Vanity, Vlad suspects. He also likes to mutilate, on occasion. My family was considered a bit odd by local standards as we dislike the human form. Zee Batty Draks, they called us. 

    I Digress. I left the northern wood many centuries ago to find a home more suitable to family standards, such as they are. I had vent to a party that night with my fellow Vampiric Bats, and vouldn't you know it but someone spiked zee Blood bowl. Vlad was talking to a couple of cute lady bats one moment and zee next I was flying through a vindow and hit my head.

    I voke up on zee floor. Dat's vhere he found me, stunned and out of flap, like a common vampire stumbling on a dance floor, only I vas alone. Zen he came out.

    When the floor started crawling it was a bit of a shock, as you imagine. I was lying there wondering how a floor could crawl when suddenly the wood began shouting at poor Vlad, as if my head wasn't already bringing me to life! (Not something a vampire wants to do, trust me)

VLAD! Spidey's story! As Spidey was saying...

Spidey rushed out stark naked. Being a proud and hands on... errr... handSOME Brown Recluse, that blind bat couldn't tell Spidey from the floor. Di nerb of him! Spidey was in full wryghts to just toss high hindness's black hindness out into di grass, but before I could tink to grab him he threw up on my nice pine floor.

One pool of blood all those years ago and you just can't let it go, yes? 

SHUSH! Spidey had been in di middil of webbing a letter to my Black Widow cousin, and now there was blood all over the webbing. Spidey furious. 

I thought the floor was about to bite me

AND YET, Spidey counted to 8 and remembered rule 16 of di Arachnid code: nebber byte what you won't wrap, and what honest spider would waste good webbing on a bat like dat?

Vell, on that we agree. 

What the boys didn't know is that they weren't alone. What they thought was an abandoned attic was actually one of my hideaways. 

©️ 2024, Accountec, LLC