Moon Glow

The car came around the corner of the wooded road at speed. The headlights illuminated the greens and browns of the trees and shrubs as they blurred past. The curved mountain road was not one that the locals drove quickly on, with the steep embankments and tight switchbacks the road had claimed many lives over the years. Two more vehicles followed the first up and around the next 180 degree turn. The two SUVs now side by side on the narrow road moved closer to the first car.Artemis Shadow drove further up the steep mountain side hoping to make the safety of the encampment on the backside of the mountain. He shot a quick sideways look at Cressida, his wife, who was craned around looking in the back seat at the rear facing car seat in the back. The baby was crying and Cressida was trying to soothe her while holding the back of the seat. She had taken off her seat belt to be able to reach the back seat and with each sharp turn of the switchbacks she was thrown side to side. “Just unstrap

The school day dragged on as usual. Amaris and Anna day dreamed back and forth all day about what it would be like to goto a party at the mountain home of one of their rich class mates. Amaris and Anna had all their classes together except for their last two of the day. So Amaris went to earth science and gym by herself. She didn’t mind that much. Mr. Bruce, who taught earth science, loved the moon as much as she did and was always keen to have little discussions with her before class about it. Mr. Bruce was a tall man in his mid 20’s with dark brown hair flecked with a tiny bit of premature grey. He had a heavy five o’clock shadow and twinkling light blue eyes. His overall appearance looked like someone that you would not want to mess with except for the eyes, they were always kindly. He always wore a button down shirt that fit tightly to his muscled body, and an open collar. His size made him intimidating. He definitely had many of the teenage girls in the school signing up for his

Amaris had no idea where the third man was but she was not going to waste time looking for him. She turned and started running up the path leading up the side of the hill away from the bridge. Amaris knew that there was a place about three quarters of a mile up where the path ran close to the road. She could take the road from there straight to her house. It was only a few miles away. Amaris was still running but now that she was fairly sure that there were no men close by that were chasing her, the adrenaline was running out and the reality of what happened both at the kickball field and the bridge was becoming more real and less like a bad dream. Amaris continued moving along the trail but at a slower still. She had tears running down her face in a constant stream and was having a hard time seeing. Mr.Clark was injured badly, Mrs. Bass was shot, was she dead? Heather, she was injured. Amaris had seen the man step away from her with a bloody knife. Was she dead too? Was all this her f

Mr. Bruce was startled at the sudden change in her demeanor. He pulled back and looked at Amaris as if she had struck him. “It’s true. You really are her.” Amaris looked at him not understanding his meaning, but also feeling weird. It was as if she had just drank 10 energy drinks and they all kicked in at once. There was a feeling of energy running through her suddenly. It’s like the thought of her Gran being in trouble woke up a power in her that she never knew was there before.Ignoring this as just one more weird thing to happen to her today, her 17th birthday of all days. Amaris looked back into Mr. Bruce’s eyes and repeated her command.“I want answers Mr. Bruce and I need to hear the truth from you about all of this. Who are these people and are the people from the school the same ones who came here and killed Grover? Do you think they have Gran too?”Mr. Bruce stood up, reached down and offered his hand to pull Amaris off the floor. He grabbed a kitchen chair that was laying on

Lyle drove slowly and methodically up the mountain side road. He seemed to be on edge. Amaris assumed that was because she had been questioning him and he was deep in thought about what she had asked him about. In reality, Lyle knew this was the exact same route that Amaris’ parents had been driving the night that they had been killed and he wanted to make sure that they weren’t followed or worse chased. Fortunately for Lyle there was not another car on the mountain side for the entire ride. There was usually light traffic at this time of day but he had never seen no traffic at all. This made him even more nervous. Amaris peered out the windshield knowing that they had to be close now. The lights were getting closer and they could see the gate blocking the road up ahead. Lyle slowed and came to a stop at the gate. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Lyle got out of the car and walked toward the two men standing at the gate. Amaris watched as they greeted one another, and then Lyle pull