The Dark Side of the Moon

Epilogue

-Florence’s P.O.V-

Chilled air tickled my face as darkness encroached upon me. My only light was the soft glow of the moon overhead. It wasn’t at its full, only a quarter sliver revealed to me. The light was enough to make out the vague features of my surroundings. I was mere feet away from the deadly drop into the eerily calm lake. The cliffs that I stood upon were on the fringe of the National Reserve, surrounded by on looking pines. The lake gently lapped back and forth against the cliff face, and I could hear the movement of a family of owls a few hundred metres away. My senses were alive.

Cars would pass by every so often, a few kilometers away on the main roads that lead to Banff. It was some horrid hour of the night to be awake, and my body was trying to convince my legs to drag me back to bed, but I did not relent. I walked softly over the hard packed earth and dropped down to sit on a patch of lengthy, swaying grass. My legs hung over the cliff, but I knew that my balance was steady enough not to let me tip over the edge.

Back in Banff, in my family house, a cream coloured envelope was placed upon the kitchen table, untouched since I laid it there. My family would not see it until they woke up, and I had those numerous hours to come to a decision.

My parents had arrived home after their travelling, just a week after the whole accident on Barnhill Road. They were unaware of that night’s events, as was everyone in the town but three people. Annie was too scared to speak up, instead promising herself to push it to the back of her mind and never think about it again. Tommy convinced me that the cops didn’t need to be involved, and instead he had called in a team ‘of his own people’ to clean up the mess. I still doubted that I could trust him, but I had no one else to turn to.

Tommy himself had come across as a changed man. From what I gathered, he had been a part of Amoretti’s organization, a little unwillingly. He was solely in it for the money, though recently he’d said he hated himself for even joining. He wanted out, and out he got. After cleaning up the whole mess and tying up loose ends, I believe that he set out on the highway, driving to a new life. He’d hinted at applying for an occupation to do with policing, but didn’t say and specifics. I didn’t blame him; we didn’t want anything to do with each other after that.

Annie was scared, and confused was an understatement, but she’d promised me not to tell the police. She had enough trouble trying to explain to her parents why she’d been missing all night, and hobbled home in tattered clothes.

As for my parents, they were too overjoyed to be home once more to question me on what I did while they were away. I gave them half-truths, how I’d met Kyle, but at a party instead of the forest. They’d bought it with a few smiles, but didn’t delve too deep into why exactly he’d left in a flash. Explaining that he’d changed into an animal and fled wouldn’t exactly sit too well with the parents; that was for sure. So instead I’d told them what I’d told Annie –he was a journalist and was busy travelling to find new stories.

I’d felt terrible lying to my own parents, but there was no other option. I loved my Mum and Dad too much to tell them about the supernatural world. It could potentially endanger them, and I had no idea how the information about their daughter being a werewolf would sit with them. My brothers were oblivious too, and I liked to keep it that way. Let them remember their kind little sister instead of a vicious animal.

I looked out across the beautiful, still scenery with sad eyes. My story was not a pleasant one. I had started out the year with a whole, happy family and an innocent outlook. Through the course of months, many things had happened that had changed me – for the worse sometimes. For one, I’d been tossed into the world of the supernatural, and not too gently. Two boyfriends of mine had been and gone, one turning out to be a sadistic and slightly insane werewolf hunter, and the other revealing himself to be the very monster in question.