The Lunar Mother

My dad's friend had just went through a incredibly tragic time a few weeks back. His son had went missing. I know that may not seem that crazy but his son had just disappeared with absolutely no evidence or clues that could've gave the authorities an idea of where he could have went. This shouldn't have concerned me as much as it did, but I actually knew the kid. He was only about 12, shy, a little on the chubby side, but I don't like speaking ill of the "assumed" deceased. The only thing that drove me to actually investigate the disappearance is how much more insane and distraught his father had gotten.

I told my parents that I wanted to help. Even though they thought I was incapable of solving anything. I mean, Im only a skinny 20 year old with no intelligence or future career, but they thought it was good that I even wanted to be involved. They told me to just try to talk to people and see what they knew. I started with people in the neighborhood. I wasn't exact on who I should've talked to first or last or whatever, but I guess me just walking around and talking to complete strangers was some form of assistance.

I decided to talk to the kid's neighbor, because that made the most sense out of anything. Who else would I talk to other than the neighbor himself, besides the father of course. I knocked on the door and an old woman had answered. She was quite short, but that's completely beside the point. I had interrogated her with small questions. "Did you see anyone leave the house?" "Did you see anyone enter?" Just those kinds of blunt and boring things. She hadn't seen anything. She heard a few cats hissing and a trashcan get knocked over, but that's it. Honestly, for me, that was a great start. Someone could have easily frightened the cats and tipped the garbage can over by mistake, but that doesn't really help by anybody else's standards.

I then went to the house across the street. They would have a perfect viewpoint of the front door and windows. I knocked and a 40, maybe 50 year old man had beaconed my calls. I asked him if he saw anybody enter or if he saw anyone in the front yard. He spoke to me in an irritated voice saying how he was with his daughter in Canada. That wasn't hard to believe because we live in Washington state which is right below the border. Although I found it quite suspicious. I had asked him more about his trip and he was quite open about it, so I guess his alibi was cleared. I told him to have a fine day, and he shut the door on my face. I guess you just get bitter as you age. I had turned to see a spider web directly in my face.

There was a spider the size of a plum on it staring directly at me while it was sucking the fluids out of a fly. I had gotten shivers, because I have a phobia of bugs, I mean, doesn't everybody? After I had gotten over my goosebumps I walked down the street. I saw the kid's father sitting in the living room, drinking scotch and crying a storm. I had felt bad, I could never imagine being in a situation like that. I just continued down the road and eventually walked home. I lived in a 2 story apartment complex that was a block away from my parents. It was just a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom. It was nothing special, but it came with a washer and dryer in it, so I was glad I wouldn't have to spend my quarters on laundry. I went to the computer which was located near the living room. I just searched on the internet about unknown disappearances. Most of them had some sort of evidence, maybe it was just a misplaced sock, but it was still something. So I thought maybe something was just slightly different when the kid first went missing, but as far as that, I had no idea.

I began to hear dogs barking and growling outside. I found this odd because none of the people who lived in the apartments were allowed to own dogs. I don't remember anyone in an entire mile radius having dogs either. I just ignored it and had decided to go to bed and rest up for the night. Even when trying to sleep though, the dogs got louder like they were getting closer to my room, but I ignored it. When I woke up in the morning I had decided that I would go to the library. I got a glass of water from the kitchen a noticed a few flies buzzing like crazy by the window. When I entered their presence they stopped and just stared at me. I left the apartment and looked at the front of my door in horror. There were large claw marks covering the bottom half of it.

I tried talking to the apartment manager to check the cameras that were pointed at my door. He let me into the technical room where I rewound the film that the cameras had captured. There wasn't a permanent view of the entrance to my apartment. Each camera sways back and forth to cover different areas. I got to the point where it was dawn, that's when I fast forwarded it to see if I noticed anything out of the ordinary. The manager was right behind me watching and breathing down on my neck. The camera had looked at the door and then turned away, constantly. When I was just about to give up, I noticed something. I heard the barks again. The barks that had started when I was going to sleep were close to the camera. When the camera turned back to the door, my mouth opened in shock. All the claw marks were there, and that's more than impossible. Nothing could accomplish something like that so quickly with no evidence left behind. A spider had then crawled upon the camera staring with it's disgusting eyes. That's when I stopped the film. The manager's face was drained of all color. I practically sprinted out of the room even when he had screamed for me to comeback.

I went straight to the library to see if they had some old newspapers or maybe even a town history on something like this. I had asked the librarian if they had such things and where I could find them. She lead me to a section completely based on our town history. I read some of the books, but to no avail. I had then found a book completely based on missing children's cases. Odd that they had a book based only on this matter. I opened the book and they was a live maggot on one of the pages, it was staring intensely at me while squirming in my direction. I flicked it off the page onto the ground and just continued to look through the book. At first, things seemed normal like anything else. Kidnappers and evidence left behind. Then I started getting into the strange things, but eventually found something that was similar to my situation. A child had went missing shortly after he had told his parents that he had been hearing whispers outside his window. The parents had dismissed it to be some sort of nightmare, but after a short amount of time. That's what it actually became. They heard they child scream from the upstairs late one night. When they reached his room, he was nowhere to be found. The strangest part was that there was no sign of a struggle.

When I looked at the date of this. I was honestly quite terrified and shocked beyond belief. It had happened November 7th, 1878. Something exactly identical to what happened recently, had happened over a century ago. That's when I knew that this wasn't just any old kidnapping. I didn't know what could have caused this, but I knew it wasn't a mere person. I decided I was going to visit the child's father and ask him some extremely detailed questions. When I went over there it was about 10 pm. I knocked on the door, there was no answer. I had twisted the doorknob to see if it was unlocked, surprisingly it was. I had entered his living room and yelled to see if anyone was home. Termites had covered the living room floor. I then went upstairs to see if he was in his bedroom. He was still no where to be found which I thought was strange because his car was in the driveway, so he had to be here somewhere.

I walked into his son's room which was ripped up. The bed sheets were torn, the dresser was broken into pieces on the ground and there we're broken shards of glass. It smelt like alcohol so I assumed the glass was from broken beer bottles. My thoughts were that the father had a total meltdown and just went into an all out rage. I sat on the bed staring at the closet doors. That's when I heard something that chilled my spine to the core. I heard a little boy cackling with a mix of sobbing. It was coming from under the bed. After I worked up some courage, I moved the bed over. There was a wet spot on the wooden floor, covered in more termites. The sound had moved to the closet though. I walked up to the closet doors and was about to open it until it bursted open by itself. I widened my eyes to see true horror. I caught a glimpse of a dark figure wearing a black robe with a hood, surrounded by chains. It had bright white eyes, I think it had a large black smile but it was hard to tell with the amount of darkness. I stuttered backwards just staring at it. Then I noticed that it had gargantuan arms that continued into razor like claws.

I had covered my nose because the room has started to smell like the rotting carcass of a cat. The monster started moving closer to me, continuing that sobbing laugh. I stepped backwards until I tripped on my own feet. My back landed on the termite covered floor, but when I landed it immediately broke from under me. I fell and landed on the couch. bouncing straight off of it and landing onto the cold living room floor. Termites were crawling on my body along with tac sized slivers piercing my skin. I looked up at the hole in the ceiling just to see nothing except for flies all over the upstairs room. I sat there for a minute and started hearing the floor underneath me crack and creak. I quickly got on all fours and tried to practically sprint off the ground with my palms and knees. It was too late for me to get out of the situation though. The floor collapsed underneath me once again and I had landed on my side. I looked up as pain seared through my body. I could tell it was about a 12 foot drop. I grabbed my side and felt a chunk of would sticking out of my flesh. I slowly pulled it out which felt like a death sentence. It was about 3 inches deep, but it felt like it reached much deeper into my stomach.

I got up about ten minutes later, yet it seemed like and hour. I was still in excruciating pain and bleeding. I didn't even know that this house had a basement. That's when the room had caught my attention. The floor was flooded in about an inch deep of water. The walls and floor were made of a thick layer of cement. The ceiling was full of leaking pipes that looked like they were going to burst any minute. Boxes of papers and books were scattered around the room. Then I noticed a wall with a tac board on it. It was covered in papers that look like they were ripped out of an almanac and/or diary. I assumed that the father was the one who had wrote them. They were about his sons kidnapping, but it wasn't normal. It was about something called "The Lunar Mother." It described exactly what I had saw in the bedroom, but it explained more things that made everything much more clear.

She can see everything, everywhere, and at anytime. She sees people through bugs which are known to be her "children." She isn't able to move during the daylight, the sun burns her skin and slows her down. The chains on her body have some sort of supernatural ability that cause her to be able to make any sound imaginable. Her bugs are connected to her through the silk of her robe. They're each connected to a thread that's completely undetectable by the human eye. The thing I found most horrifying is how she performs her act of kidnapping. She claws the person to death, when she is finished, she lets her children eat the remains, even the bones. Then there is no trace of that person even existing. As I was reading I felt the water reach my ankles. I glanced up and saw the pipes had actually bursted, and the water was rising fast. I thought quick on my feet and started piling boxes on top of each other right underneath the hole in the ceiling. As I stepped onto the box I felt my ankles in pain. They were covered in leeches that were sucking the blood out like miniature vampires. I grabbed my cigarette lighter from my pocket and took some of the papers from the box I was standing on. I lit the paper on fire and pressed it against the leeches. I felt the burns on my skin and it was arduous. Once the leeches had been burned off of my skin. I noticed the water had risen about 2 feet higher. I began to try climbing out and enter the living room but I just didn't have the strength through all the soreness I had endured.

I had given up and just stood there on the boxes thinking that I may be able to swim out if the water rises high enough and the leeches don't eat me alive. I then gawked at the water as something started rising from it, and I knew it wasn't just leeches. As it surfaced I could tell it was the creature, The Lunar Mother. She began to wade closer and closer to me until she was only approximately a yard away. I then remembered that I still had the wedge of wood that was stuck in my side right on the box I was standing on. I lit the end of it with my lighter and started swinging ferociously hoping that I would somehow hit her before she lacerated me with her claws. She started howling, but this was a type of shriek that would even make the strongest of men cower in fear. I looked at her and saw that I had ripped part of her robe. I honestly wish I hadn't. I could see her bare flesh, if that's even what you could call it. The actual skin part was brown and looked like rotted meat, but the worst part was the eyes. Her skin was covered thousands of eyes that were barely centimeters apart. They all glared at me with their black irises and pupils. I was full of so much fear that I was hellbent on getting out. I jumped up and grabbed on to the ceiling, still hearing that awful wailing. I used the rest of my upper body strength and pulled myself straight out of the room. I didn't stop and take a rest even though I very much would have liked to. I got up and ran out the door and started sprinting to my apartment.

When I got home I ran in and locked the door, and pulled down all the curtains and blinds. There were still flies in my window, so I grabbed the bug spray and proceeded to kill them. I made sure I killed every bug there was possible. I Grabbed some gauze and medical tape to wrap around my wound. I could finally go to sleep and try to forget everything the next morning. I laid in my bed and shut my eyes, and it just felt like pure bliss. The next morning just seemed normal. Except there was a mosquito in my kitchen. I squashed it in a heart beat though, I wish I hadn't. When I had crushed the insect I heard a slight howl come from the other room. I didn't investigate or grab anything important. I just ran out of the house and sprinted until I eventually reached the park.

I sat on the bench, thinking and contemplating of everything that happened. All the people that she killed. All the grieving parents, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters. This thing will never leave. She sees everything, she knows every mistake, every moment, even every thought you may of had. She knows us just as well as we do, maybe even more. I'll never be able to escape her grasp. Neither will you, every bug you see will tell her what you're doing, what you're planning, who you're seeing. Those crickets you hear chirping, those dogs you hear barking, those slight sounds like a fallen trash can or the leaves in the wind. She'll be there, maybe even making the sounds as a distraction so she can strike. She can follow you to the darkest corners and the greatest hiding places. Bugs are everywhere and can be anywhere, and where they are, she is.

Hours had unknowingly passed as I was stuck in my paralysis like state. When I had finally snapped out of it, I went to a department store and bought some flares along with a flare gun. I walked back to my apartment expecting to see her. She left, there weren't even any bugs in my sight, but that doesn't mean there weren't any at all. The next few weeks I had lived with paranoia, afraid of my own shadow. There wasn't any sign saying that she was still after me. The police are still investigating what happened back at the house and how it got in such a critical condition. The father still hasn't been found and a search party formed to look not just for the son but the father as well. I seem to be the only one who knows they won't find them. I'm beat though, and now that I'm in my peace of mind I can sleep in peace again. I walk to my bed and get under the covers, lay my head on the pillow. I shut my eyes and and go back to that feeling of rest and bliss. Then I hear canines bark outside my door.