Scribe's Hollow Halloween Horror Anthology 2024

Once in a Red Moon (Chapter 1)

Entry by Nic_Blackwill from their book Once in a Red Moon.  Excerpt from chapter one: The H[a]unt[ing] Begins.

***

'Target One'

Later that night...

Somewhere in a gated community of similar looking houses dark clouds linger in the sky above the peaceful sleeping residences. Heavy winds blow tree limbs rustle and the thick clouds move away to reveal the scarlet tinted moon that looms ominously in the distance. Its red glow shines on one particular house.

The ebony woman tosses and turns in her king size bed. Red light casts through the parted curtain of her bedroom and paints her. A wolf howl snaps awake the restless sleeper. Beads of sweat line her forehead as her heart pounds in her chest. She searches around in the red darkness of her room to nothing unordinary.

The woman climbs out of bed to close the curtains. As she gets to the window a gust of air swipes down beside her face, chills run down her back. She turns around and gives her room another scan. This time something, or someone covered in darkness was sitting on her dresser near the bedroom's door.

Shit, there's no way I'll reach the door before they catch me. The woman thinks to herself.

She rushes to her nightstand and rifles through it pulling out her gun. Its chrome body gleams under the red light of the moon.

"Stay right there," she yells in the direction of whatever on the dresser. She takes the safety off, cocks the gun, and aims it.

The person doesn't budge. While she keeps the gun trained on them she uses her other hand to flick on the lamp on the nightstand.

The yellow tinted light washes out the red and darkness to reveal whatever is on the dresser. The woman shoots her attention back to the dresser to see what sits there. She still can't make out what's sitting on top, her vision is blurry, so she grabs her glasses and struggles to put them on. Finally does and looks again. No person sits there. Just a pile of folded laundry.

With that relief the woman takes a deep breath before she places the safety back on and uncocks the gun. She places the gun on top of the dresser. She closes her curtains and climbs back into bed. She turns off the lamp.

She rolls over onto her side away from the window and pulls the covers up to her chin. Her hand slips from the cover and hits the rim of her glasses. Damn it, I forgot to take these off. She rolls back over to her nightstand and places her glasses on top. She slightly bumps the gun, it just moves a bit closer to the edge. She rolls back into her original position.

As she gets comfortable again she feels something crawl into her bed. Hot moist air blows into her face.

"Rufus, you know you don't belong in Mommy's b-bed..." Hold on, Rufus can't be here. He's in his cage downstairs.

A growl shocks her eyes awake to two red blurry dots. She shrieks as she back paddles over the edge of the bed bumping into her nightstand causing the lamp and her gun to fly off with her. Glass shatters and metal hits the floor in a loud thud next to her.

Muffled barking comes from downstairs.

Fear running through her veins as the red dots appear over the edge of her bed. She can feel the presence of something big looming over her.

"What are you?" She yells as she searches for her gun. F@#$, her hand gets bit by a piece of glass.

The two red dots seem to move in an arc from side to side like they're measuring her. The woman continues her search for her weapon picking up a few more wounds before her fingers find the cool metal barrel. She stanches the gun and points it towards the two dots.