The Devil of the Moon (Moonblood Series 1)

Chapter 1: Fear of the Unknown

I had one thing I fear the most.

Rain.

"How did I get here?" she mumbled, her voice barely audible over the gentle patter of droplets. Time seemed to blur, as if the hands of the clock had frozen in place. Laying there in the mud, the damp soil cradling her body and despite her seemingly relaxed form, she fought to raise her hand, but it remained glued. A multitude of faceless figures converged around her and their identities concealed in a shroud of darkness.

As the rain intensified, her pleas for help echoed through the cloudburst, but they fell on deaf ears. The faceless figures remained frozen and untouched by the cascading rain causing her breath to quicken. Her eyes darted around frantically, searching for any means of escape. Yet, despite her efforts, she remained trapped in her own nightmare.

"Survive and run away!" She looked around while her mouth agape in a silent scream. But the faceless figures surrounding her barely moved their lips. Wide-eyed with realization and the desperate need to escape consumed her thoughts once more. "Survive and run away!" A familiar yet unrecognizable male voice echoed through the haze, causing her vision to blur further.

A loud and shrieking scream echoed inside her head, sending shivers down her spine and intensifying her fear of the unknown. Her heart pounded so rapidly that its crashing rhythm drowned out all other sounds, and her chest felt as though an invisible weight pressed upon it, making each breath a struggle. Vision continued to blur, as though both her eyes and lower body were submerged in water, trapping her in this sea of calamity. Every heartbeat seemed to synchronize with the relentless wailing, each scream that seemed to stretch on into eternity. It left her questioning her sanity while she felt like a fragile bird, imprisoned in a cage and its once colorful wings now cruelly torn apart. The nightmare had her firmly in its grip as she struggled to regain control over her own body while desperately longing to escape from the border of hallucination.

However, she recognized that her sole means of escape from this darkness was to locate Kahel and Azul. As she summoned the strength to scream, her voice quivered, and her attempts to break free were absorbed by the abyss. Wrestling against the suffocating darkness, she strained her will to move her toes, but they remained firmly entrapped in a realm that resisted her every step to break loose.

Once more, the piercing screams reverberated around her, like the excruciating cries of prey pursued by terrifying monsters. These were not just ordinary screams; they were infused with a multitude of emotions, as if the very essence of the victims was being torn into pieces. Could these be the feared Aswang that the locals spoke of? Why were all these voices filled with such desperation, pleading for salvation? Her mind was contaminated by the stories she had heard from local witnesses, and it poisoned her thoughts even further.

"Lia!" A high-pitched, unsteady voice rang out from a distance, reaching Lia's ears. She recognized the voice, belonging to a woman she had known for a long time. And reality began to claw its way back into her consciousness as the voice grew louder, accompanied by ground-shaking footsteps that hinted at something horrific happening. Was the full moon heralding the end of the world?

"Margosha, have you seen her?!" A man's voice grew shrill and rapid, his words coming in a rushed blur that made it challenging for Lia to comprehend fully. Yet, amidst the urgency, she could discern the reassurance that her friends were indeed real and present. "Lia!" The man's voice quivered as if he had witnessed something truly disturbing. In an instant, the world fell into a deafening silence, enveloping Lia once more in that dark void where an unseen threat was lurking.

The sense of paralysis defeated her, leaving Lia feeling trapped. Her mind continued to whirl with these thoughts, the weight of her helplessness pressing down on her. It was a suffocating unending void that clung to her, refusing to let go, and she longed for a way out of this nightmarish world.