(EDITING) Under A Lonely Moon

Chapter One: Zak's POV

As I pulled up onto the over grown driveway I sighed. This really was the last place that I wanted to be right now.
'Shit' I muttered as I peered out of the slightly dirty windscreen of my dark green Chevy impala. My new home was a simple two bedroomed house that was completely detached and surrounded by a thick green forest. The rent was surprisingly cheap considering the location and style of the house, but I was more than grateful as I had to quit my job in order to move here, so money would be tight for a while. I rubbed my temples as I lay my aching head on the steering wheel. Two days ago I had a perfectly okay life living in the city with my mother and her asshole of a husband. Unfortunately for me though, I was forced out of my childhood home by some smelly, ugly, fat, balding pig my mother decided to fall in love with. Well realistically she fell in love with his money alone, it can't be anything to do with his looks. He owned a successful plumbing and gas business so my mother instantly saw the pound signs floating above his fat bald head. Then as if things couldn't get worse she moved the pig in within the bloody week! Safe to say after two weeks of putting up with the arrogant arsehole things turned sour pretty fast. He didn't like the idea of some other mans sprog living under the same roof as him and he definitely didn't like being told that it wasn't his house to begin with. He had royally pissed me off one fateful afternoon and I told him exactly what I thought of him and safe to say he didn't appreciate it at all. He began yelling in my face, even daring as far as to take a swing at me too! I was on the floor nursing a bruised and bleeding lip when my mother walked in from whatever shopping spree she had decided to take herself on that day. She took one look at the situation and without even listening to my side of the story, decided that it was time for me to leave because I was causing her nothing but trouble. In a rage I packed my things into my car that evening and drove away from the only home I had known for twenty years without even so much as a goodbye. I slept rough that night, huddling on the backseat of my car desperately trying to keep warm under a very worn out blanket. The next day, while stressfully filtering through the internet, I found this house and didn't even think twice when I rang the landlord to check it's availability. Luckily it was available and after some persuading he allowed me to move straight in without viewing the property first. So, that's how I ended up sitting in my car on the gravel driveway of a rather run down looking house.

The house itself was beautiful, if you could look past the thick green shrubbery that partially hid it from view. Weeds and unkept bushes soared sky high and I had no doubt they'd be a total pain to sort out. The front of the house needed some tlc too. The wooden beams that made up the structure of the house could use some work, some of them looking a bit rotten in places and one of the windows had been broken on the second floor. In all I suppose it didn't look too bad. It just needed a bit of sprucing up I guess.
I sighed rather dramatically as I forced myself to jump out the car, the gravel crunching under my much worn converse as I begrudgingly waded through the waist high weeds to the front door.
I fumbled with the keys, dropping them twice, before I finally managed to force the heavy wooden door open. The old door groaned heavily as I heaved it shut once I was inside, "note to self - door needs oiling," I thought, "or replacing." The air inside the house was moist and damp. It was clear that no one had lived here for some time and nobody had bothered to maintain the house either. Floorboards creaked and groaned underfoot as I explored my new living quarters.
Downstairs was an open plan living, dining and kitchen area, which was in serious need of some TLC. The wallpaper had peeled away from the walls, as had the paint and there seemed to be a damp patch that had spread across most of the ceiling. The kitchen was fully fitted with every appliance you could possibly need but in desperate need of a thorough cleaning or two before I'd even consider using it! The laminate wooden flooring was stained with lord knows what and bubbling in various places, showing that water was clearly leaking from somewhere. The upstairs was in a similar state to downstairs. There was two decent sized rooms, a bathroom and a small cupboard for storage. In all it wasn't too bad, but it needed a tonne of work, which was a major pain considering I'd have to do most of it myself until I could afford to pay someone to do the work.
First things first I needed to clean a space for myself for the time being and also clean the room which I was going to be sleeping in. I decided to use the back room for now as the room at the front of the house had the broken window. Heading back outside I opened the trunk of my impala and grabbed the rucksack containing the bits and bobs that would last me until the rest of my belongings arrived the day after next. I didn't have a lot of things to begin with so the only items that needed bringing over were the bigger ones like the bed, wardrobes and tv, plus a couple boxes that I'd used to dump the rest of my belongings in. The sofa I had coming the weekend after managing to find a second hand one that was both cheap and still in a good condition. As I shifted through the things in the boot, deciding on what was needed right away to clean, a chorus of twigs snapping echoed round me making me jump and causing the trunk door to fall heavily on my hand.
'Fuck!' I gasped in pain and blinked away the tears that brimmed my eyes. 'God!' I said through gritted teeth as I looked at my already bruising hand, making a fist and flexing my fingers to assess the damage done. Thankfully nothing seemed to be broken, but by god it hurt like hell. Cradling my injured hand against my chest, I slung my backpack across my shoulder and picked up the cleaning supplies before heading straight back into the house, not even bothering to look to see what had caused those noises. It was most likely my mind playing tricks on me, using the fact that I was alone and completely surrounded by dense forest to scare the living daylights out of me. I mumbled under my breath in irritation about how utterly ridiculous I was being, telling myself to grow up and stop being stupid as I made my way back into the house.

It was almost midnight before I was able to sit down in a nice clean spot and put my feet up. Cleaning was difficult to begin with, but it was only made harder by the fact that I couldn't use my left hand properly. It had swollen up, the bruising as black as night against my pale skin, covering the back of my hand, two fingers and thumb. I sat on the beanbag that I'd brought with me and gulped back half a can of beer, gasping as the semi-cool liquid slid down my throat. As much as I hated to admit it, the silence was almost welcoming at this point, allowing me to relax almost happily into the old and worn beanbag. The peace was only short lived however as my phone suddenly began buzzing on the wooden floor next to me, which had been thoroughly mopped, disinfected and swept clean. I didn't even need to look at the screen to know that it was my mother calling, she had tried hourly throughout the day but I refused to answer the calls. Huffing in annoyance I put the can down and reluctantly picked up the phone.
"Hello." I said plainly, not bothering to hide the irritation in my voice.
"Hello Zak sweetie." She said, her voice as always overly happy which only fuelled my irritation.
"What do you want? You wouldn't call this late for a little chat." I grumbled impatiently.
"I-I was just calling to see if you'd managed to settle in nicely." She stumbled over her words, obviously not expecting me to speak so bluntly to her, but I was too tired to care. It was her fault that I was forced to move out anyway.
"Yes, everything's fine. Some work needs to be done but that's to be expected given the price of the rent being so cheap and all." I took another loud swig of beer and slouched further into the beanbag.
"Thats good then. It'll give you a sense of accomplishment fixing it all up by yourself. Well if you're ok then I'll be off. Bye." She hung up, not even bothering to wait for my reply.
"Bye." I said sarcastically and let the phone fall onto the floor, finishing off the can and opening another.
Suddenly, as if the chat with my mother had caused a stir, the house was too quiet, each sound was too loud and I found myself suddenly hating it. I was used to noise. Living in a city meant that nothing was ever quiet. Even the rumbling of cars passing by was sorely missed. Was I now feeling homesick after speaking to my mother? I snickered at myself. Twenty years old and I was suddenly afraid of being in a house alone. How silly. I sighed in defeat and decided it was a good time to head off to bed. Well my bed consisted of a sleeping bag on the floor for the moment, but it would have to do until my things were delivered.
As I awkwardly tried to heave myself off the beanbag a sudden bang on the old front door had me bolt to my feet in shock, knocking over the half empty can and spilling the contents across the newly cleaned floor. My heart thumped wildly against my chest as my breath quickened to match my racing heart. Another bang echoed round the empty house and I heard the front door rattle, the wood groaning as something pushed up against it. Slowly I tiptoed to the entrance to the living room and peeked my head round into the hallway. The door visibly rattled once more as something hit against it. I almost jumped out of my skin as I ran and hid back round the corner, panic flooding through my body. A low and deep growl rumbled from the other side of the door and my heart sank, my blood running cold. What the hell was that? Could it be a bear? A wolf maybe? My lungs screamed for air as I held my breath while trying to listen to whatever was outside my door. A thought sent a chill through me as I considered whether the old and worn out piece of wood would even hold up against whatever was pushing against it. I wasn't allowed to ponder and worry for long as an ear splitting noise forced me to my knees, my hands clawing at my ears, trying to block out that awful noise. It reminded me of when my friend scraped his nails across the board at school, but this sound was a hundred times more intense. I dared not move even when the noise had stopped. Fear held me tight and refused to let me go as my body trembled. I was too frightened to even try to protect myself so what kind of man did that make me? I remained huddled where I was until the morning light shone through the gap in the moth eaten curtains. I heaved a sigh in some kind of relief knowing that the worst night I had ever had was finally over. But what in the world happened?
My joints were stiff and ached from being in the same position for such a long period of time, protesting against the movements as I slowly stood. Warily, I poked my head out into the hallway and looked at the front door. It was still standing, which was a good sign. Slowly I made my way to it and, after a long delay, pulled it open. The sunlight was blinding and I had to put a hand up to shield my eyes as I looked around at the surrounding trees.
Nothing. There was nothing to be seen apart from bushes, weeds and trees.
Cursing myself for probably imagining the whole ordeal, I turned to go back into the house when I saw something that turned my blood cold again. Along the length of the front door was thick, deep claw marks.

*picture is of Zak's house*