Thirty One Days

Out

The milky white of Madam Luna's eyes stared directly at us or maybe through, her skin pale and her body trembling as she held onto one of the rounded kitchen chairs.
Jack turned away from Madam Luna, golden eyes blazing, and locked eyes with Istvan. "Which way did the Slayer run?" His voice was husky and gruff, the outline of his body began to shift ever so slightly before our eyes.
Istvan simply shook his head, "Towards the main road," I recalled, they had ran parallel to the dirty road that lead to Madam Luna's sanctuary.
Jack moves closely towards us, grabbing us each with one hand and then leaned down between us, inhaling deeply. His eyes were shut as he inhaled again before they popped out, blazing more intensely.
"Got it," He said as he headed for the door then turned to Istvan, "Boy, don't let the girls out of your sight." Jack threw open the door and headed outside in the cold night air. We couldn't help but follow to see what would happen, even though we knew, we needed to see.
His arms and legs stretched unnaturally from him as hair seemed to sprout from all over in thick black patches. The sound of bone cracking and crunching made all of us cover our ears as Jack's face formed the face of a wolf. His back perturbed in an upwards arch, when he finally stood be had to be beyond seven feet. We weren't able to take in the full view because as soon as the transformation was over, Jack was gone.
I vaguely wondered if I had even see anything, let alone a creature, move that fast and swiftly through a maze of trees.
Madam Luna collapsed into the kitchen chair that she was holding on too, breathing deeply with some sweat beading around her hair line. Her slender, ringed fingers still trembled as the lay in her lap.
After shutting and locking the door, Istvan walked throughout the house ensuring that all the windows were locked and all the rooms were empty.
As he did this I sat with Madam Luna, rubbing her back.
"Would you like some tea?" I asked, trying to calm her down, Jack was after the Slayer and that meant they were being pushed away. As way Jack though.
Standing, I filled the tea pot with water and tried to stay busy to hide my own anxiety. It wouldn't help us. "What kind of tea would you like?" I asked as I turned around to face Madam Luna.
However, she was no longer sitting in the kitchen chair, she was standing in the living room staring out the window. The same window that I saw the Cloaked Skelton in but that couldn't be what she was staring at.
Moving closer I realized there was an owl sitting on a branch, staring back at Madam Luna.
"Madam Luna?" My voice was barely a whisper but when I laid my hand on her shoulder she jumped slightly. Never breaking eye contact with the owl though.
Istvan came into the living room, breathing hard, "All the windows are covered," He paused when he saw Madam Luna staring out the window and raised his eyebrows at me in confusion. "Is everything alright?" He asked as he looked out the window also.
The sky was dark with a few speckles of stars which were hard to see due to the canopy that the thick trees created above. The long grass and flowering bushes flapped slowly in the wind that seemed to pick up. A eerie silence crept through the house making it feel hallow and cold.
As Istvan grabbed onto my hand I began noticing something different with Madam Luna , she had begun to faintly shimmer. A warm golden halo outlined her body but I struggled to decipher whether or not it was real or part of my imagination.
"Stevie," Istvan whispered in my ear as he pulled me close to him, "I think we need to leave."
Something flickered in the window.
Craning my head to look up at him, it was my turn to raise an eye brow. "What do you mean?"
"Just a feeling I have," He said with a shrug as he gazed down at me, goosebumps had spread across his arms as he held onto me. Pulling my eyes away I glanced back at the window, and instead of seeing through it my reflection was staring back at me.
My breath caught in my throat as I prepared for the pain again, but nothing like that happened. Instead, she began waving at me, pointing toward the kitchen.
"What is it?" Istvan was squinting towards the window then looked down at me, I could feel his irritation grow.
My reflection glanced behind her then back at me, waving more frantic this time.
"We need to go into the kitchen." I said as I began moving in that direction, Istvan followed closely behind me, and we both stood in the door way. Peaking at Madam Luna but out of sight now.
I noted that the kitchen felt warmer than the living room had.
"Jeez," Istavn's voice caught in his throat as he paled over, moving away from the doorway. Unsure of what he saw, I looked back into the living room, moving so that I could see the window as well as Madam Luna. And I wished I hadn't.
Madam Luna, in her jeans and over sized cardigan, stood tensely as she continued to stare out the window. But, another woman had now appeared, staring just as intensely as Madam Luna.
From what I could see this other woman had thick, messy black hair, with dark eyes that were rimmed in heavy black make up. She smiled tauntingly with tiny teeth and a scar across her top lip. The woman could have been beautiful if it wasn't for the heavy make up and unfortunate features.
Istvan pulled me back quickly before the woman could notice me, we huddled together in the corner between a bookshelf and the wall. I couldn't tell if Istvan's body was trembling or if mine was but soon that didn't matter because I could see the cold seeping into the kitchen. Then we heard a creak.
The sound of heavy footsteps followed.
Wrapping his arms around me Istvan locked eyes with me, panic and sadness flickered through his green eyes, while the temperature dropped. I held my breath as I heard the foot steps come closer.
The woman, very slender with thick shoulder length, messy black hair, slowly walked by us. Two feathers were tucked into her hair, could they be owl feathers? She looked down at us for a half a second, staring hard like she was trying to see something then turned away.
She wore a grey dress with ripped panty bows and platform boots that had iron rings on them. The skin around my neck began to grown warm as I notice that she wore a heavy chain of silver and had a patch of irritated skin under it.
Self punishment perhaps?
Stiff air followed her as she headed into the living room and I let out the breath that I had been holding in.
Istvan stood immediately, pushing me to the side as he did so and peaked around the corner of the doorway. As he turned back to him his face was covered in confusion and worry, he held his hand out to me.
As I took it I tried to peak around the corner as well but he blocked me and pushed me towards the front door. Attempting to get around him and head to Madam Luna, Istvan grabbed both of my hands tightly and it took my biting onto my bottom lip to contain my yelp.
Istvan pulled my bottom lip out of my teeth and took my hand, more gently this time, in his then lead me outside. The night time air was crisp and all but blew through the sweatshirt that I had on.
"Istvan, where are we going?" I asked, the wind was beginning to pick up.
"That woman is a witch, like Madam Luna," He explained, the flannel he had on ripples in the window.
"How do you know?" Glancing back I began to worry for Madam Luna as I could physically see her house shake. Jack had ran off after a Slayer, which seemed more like a trap now than him hunting the person. Madam Luna was in her house, her sanctuary, something she had worked hard to achieve with another witch. A witch was ill intent. And now, Istvan and I were running off into the woods together, alone with no direction or sunlight.
"Can't you feel it?" He asked without turning back towards me. "The energy, the power, the evil."
Panic gripped my body as we continued through the dense woodland. Open ground becoming more scarce as did the little light coming from the moon.
We were in a forest.