Chapter 2

This was the first time Landon had brought up his mission on his own since he returned. I pressed him on what the moon spirit looked like.

He blanched. "Don't ask."

"What exactly did you see, Landon?"

"I told you to drop it!" he bellowed.

I was startled. Lucia poked her head out of her room, too.

The moment he saw her, he went silent. He balled his hands into fists, turned around, and retreated to our bedroom.

His agency had warned me that he'd exhibited mild stress reactions after returning from his mission and advised me to spend more time with him. I worked in the space program too, so I knew that prolonged missions in confined environments could affect one's mental health. Hence, I chalked up his claim of seeing the moon spirit to a hallucination caused by the extreme environment he'd been in.

However, after dinner, Landon suddenly brought out several rolls of black fabric. He sealed up all the windows in the house, and he didn't even spare the palm-sized vent in the bathroom. He even sealed the peephole in the front door with tape.

When the last sliver of daylight vanished, the room became an airtight coffin. I found his actions harder and harder to understand. "Is all this really necessary?"

"We can't let any light in at night."

"Not even the streetlights?"

He froze for a moment. "All lights from the outside are off-limits."

I stared at him. "What about moonlight?"

Landon whipped his head around. In that instant, the look in his eyes became terrifyingly fierce.

However, within seconds, that ferocity was replaced by fear. He closed the distance between us and seized my wrist. "Don't touch these black fabrics, Sylvia; at least not for the next 14 days."

I asked him what would happen after 14 days. He let go of me without saying a word.

…

At 9:00 pm, Lucia ran into the bedroom with her pillow, pestering Landon to tell her a story. He refused, so she sat on the floor and refused to leave.

"The kindergarten teacher gave us homework. Daddy and Mommy have to tell me a story about the moon." She tugged at Landon's hand. "Daddy, you've been to the moon. I'm sure you'll tell a better story than anyone else!"

Landon remained silent for what felt like an eternity. In the end, he carried her back to her bedroom.

When I walked past the door, I heard him telling her a story about the moon spirit. However, in his story, there was no elixir of immortality. There was only a woman who lived on the moon.

Landon said she was incredibly beautiful. She had waited on the moon for many years, waiting for someone to visit her.

Lucia was mesmerized. "Why does she keep waiting?"

Landon didn't answer.

"Isn't she scared to be all alone on the moon?"

"No, she isn't."

"Why?"

"Because she isn't alone."

I stopped outside the door.

Lucia didn't notice anything was off and continued, "Did you see her, Daddy?"

Silence settled over the room.

"Daddy?"

"Go to bed."

"But you haven't finished the story!"

Landon shot to his feet. "You're not allowed to listen to it anymore!"

Lucia was frightened by his outburst; she shrank under the covers.

When Landon spotted me outside the room, his expression became frighteningly grim. I asked if he'd been reminded of what happened on the far side of the moon. He squeezed past me. "It's just a story. Don't read too much into it."

That night, I slept fitfully.

…

In the middle of the night, a faint scratching sound suddenly came from the window. It sounded as if something was scraping the fabric with its fingernails.

I opened my eyes and realized Landon was no longer beside me.

Lucia, dressed in a white nightgown, stood with her back to me in front of the window, clawing at the black fabric. Her fingernails were already bleeding.

She'd scratched a small, perfectly round hole in the center of the black fabric. Pale moonlight leaked through the hole, landing squarely on her face.

My blood ran cold. It was only the first day of the month. How could the moonlight be so bright?

"Lucia?" The moment I called out her name, she went still. She didn't turn around; she simply gazed out the window and let out a chuckle. "Mommy, I want to see the moon spirit."