Because The Sky Is Falling

PART 1 - 7/8 #HALFMOON

Cloudy, dark and ominous that night was, and the walk from Shinn's house to my own was not too far as she only lived a street over from me. Despite the walk being short, my hand was clasped over the mace in my jacket pocket like always. My eye had caught a glimpse of a dimly lit street-light, my ears focused on the sound of the slight spring breeze rustling the leaves of nearby trees and I felt nothing out of the ordinary. Though the fear of being abducted was itching at my brain, it was something unexpected that had me frightened that night on the eighth of July. The sight of the night sky was a terrifying one and the half-moon seemed to have thought the same as it quickly hid from itself in the clouds hovering above.

A sphere with the bottom-half missing appeared in the sky in front of me and it was a sight so strange and unheard of that I stopped in my tracks and stared with my eyes glued to the half-circle before me as it hid in the sky. It took me a very small amount of time to process what just happened and an even smaller amount of time for me to convince myself that it was a trick of the mind and a mis-conception of my eyes. I continued the walk with the shake of a head, trying to rid my mind of the unexplainable image, but for whatever reason, it stuck. I didn't spend anymore time trying to forget the incident and instead just let it rest in the back of my brain.

The trek home lasted no longer than two full minutes, and it ended with the turn of a key. There was nothing left to do but lie to myself saying I'd go to bed early and instead scroll through my social media for hours on end. I had only been on the homepage of Twitter for a few minutes before getting bored and making my way to the explore page. Here I found that the number one trending hashtag was #HALFMOON. I stared at the hashtag for longer than I should have before my curiosity and anxiety had gotten the best of me, and I tapped on the square with trembling fingers.

I don't know what I expected, but what I saw still surprised me. 98,950 tweets, most with pictures attached, and nearly every picture under the hashtag was of the same moon I had seen just minutes before arriving home. What I had originally thought was the deception of my own eyes performed by my own brain was reality in the eyes of many. In fact, it was reality in the eyes of anyone and everyone that laid eyes on the moon that night. Theories had swept the internet and thousands, maybe millions of people stayed up on their laptops, tablets and phones for the entirety of the night getting their sleep either from ten minute naps between tweets and Instagram captions, or from collapsing from exhaustion at five in the morning.

Shinn, my-taller-than-me-but still-kinda-short friend with a face of freckles and a long mass of flowing curly brown hair, nor myself could ever sneak out of the house to spend the night at the other's because we we're too obedient for that. However, thanks to the invention of the internet and the creation of skype, we stayed up together anyways. Thinking about it now, however, sneaking out wouldn't have been so bad...in fact, we should have done it.