Bittersweet Umbra

5.

Heavy breaths. Wild eyes. The howling of a ravenous wind. Kudzai constantly peeks through the blinds as he checks to see if anyone approaches. No-one. The street is empty, as usual, and there's no sign of Rodney, the twins, Bubbles or anyone else. Where are they? He paces, anxiously anticipating their arrival.

Meanwhile, Zee dabs at Tully's forehead with a damp cloth while the girl rests on her lap. She pauses, not looking up, her eyes to the floor.

"You better start telling me what the fuck just happened." She looks at him, a furious blaze in her eyes. "Because that man nearly killed my daughter and you're the one who brought us to him." Gently laying Tully down, she gets to her feet, pulling the crystal from the back of her jeans and holding it threateningly towards him. "I swear to God I'll fucking gut you if you don't start talking."

Kudzai swallows, raising his hands and stepping backwards. "Calm down, Max. There's no need for all of that. I'll talk. I'll..." He breathes deeply, turning away from her. Hunched over a table, he presses against it as if he might fall over. "I uhm... I did some things. Things I'm not proud of and-" His voice breaks into a brief whimper.

Zee flips him around, holding the crystal to his neck. "You think I fucking care? My daughter is dying. Talk!"

Kudzai moves away from her, sitting on another couch. They're in his home - the one he used to share with his husband. All the curtains are drawn. Dust and shadows fill the rooms. The air is stale. He hasn't been here for months. Not ever since...

"Rodney was normal once - normal in the slightest sense of the word. He was a man with a face and I suppose a heart. He felt emotions just like any of us but he was always a recluse. We never knew what he got up to in that house of his and whenever he stepped outside he was so strange and unsociable. This was around the time the Orange Moon had first appeared and Rodney, well... he seemed to like it. Something about it fascinated him. As Sheriff, I didn't like the idea of suspicious characters living in my town so I'd talk to him whenever I saw him, try figure out what he's about. A fellow like that, all weird and secretive, he's sure to raise questions." Kudzai pauses, closing his eyes, shaking his head as he takes a breath. "Sadly, his parents had died during that period of time. I can only imagine how much worse things got for him - the loneliness, being misunderstood."

Tully moans, still unconscious, her face pale and sweating. Beginning to assume the worst, Zee stares at her daughter with increasing worry.

"But it's no excuse for what he did to her," Kudzai says. "It's some unholy power of his. All that time checking on him and pretending to be his friend - he started telling me things. He started telling me how he'd spent years studying the Moon and the Lunar Flare. He had theories and suspicions. So many of those. Eventually, he started going out during the Flares. I thought he was out of his mind and that he'd end up killing himself but each time he managed to make it back to the town. I kept his secret because I knew what the townspeople would say if they found out and...a part of me was intrigued by what he had to say. It all got much worse when he started showing me things."

Zee sits down, cradling Tully's head on her lap. "What things?"

"The type of things I didn't think were possible. Whatever he was doing out there during those Flares, it was changing him. First, it started with the voices in his head. This was enough to convince me that we'd overstepped a boundary so I decided to put an end to things. But, when I went to see him, I started hearing voices too. I realised he was communicating with me..through his thoughts."

Zee's eyes widen, having witnessed Rodney's abnormalities but shocked nonetheless. She's heard of the Moon turning people mad but never of it giving such power. Expressing increasing shame, Kudzai continues;