The Cold Moon

Thudding footsteps echo through the night as a scared little girl runs down the darkened street. Breathing hard, tears flowing down her cheeks, she has no idea where she’s running to. A racing mind as fast as her feet has no room for plans inside it; she acts on pure instinct as she looks for somewhere to hide.

There, by the lake! There’s a rock ledge that will hide her from any passersby on the road. Slowing only once she nears the edge, the girl lowers herself onto the ledge, and watches the streetlights set over her new horizon. Turning to face the lake, a breeze sweeps across the water’s surface and leaves goose bumps on her bare arms. She should have taken her sweatshirt with her before she left the house.

Her heartbeat keeps racing for minutes after she stopped to lie down, sending twitches through the young girl’s body urging it to move again. But she must keep still. She must not be found. The shouting voices still resonate in her head, hatred and agony fusing to form new emotions that she cannot understand. When did her parents turn into monsters?

Red-faced from their fury, mother and father shouted across the kitchen table. They looked like demons; they might as well have grown claws and torn out each other’s throats. It happened every weekend, when they were forced to live together. They weren’t busy with work or sleeping all the time. Leisure was danger. And every time they fought, their poor daughter was forced to watch their cruelty. Their shouting kept her from sleeping; curiosity and fear drove her out of her bed to watch and listen while she hid in the shadows.

Tonight was different. Tonight her father saw her standing in the doorway. “Get your ass back upstairs before I throw it there myself!” he shouted, clenching his teeth. She had never seen such ferocity in his eyes before; he was not her father anymore. And so she ran.

The tears stung her eyes once more at the thought of her father. There was no love in his eyes. There was no laughter in his voice that she was so accustomed to during the day. It seemed the moon brought out the beast in him. It hung in the sky taunting her; she closed her eyes and bit her tongue to keep herself from cursing at the moon. She stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity but when she opened her eyes again, the moon hadn’t even moved an inch.

The night was getting colder; it seeped into the girl’s bones and made her shiver more and more violently. She didn’t even know why she was out here hiding anymore. Nobody was coming to look for her. She was going to freeze for nothing if she didn’t get up.

The walk home was farther than she had expected, but at least the movement warmed her muscles some. When she returned to her house, there were no lights on inside. The porch light was even turned off. Did her parents even realize she had left the house? The front door was unlocked so they must have. They just knew she would come home eventually.

She climbed the stairs slowly so that no floorboards would creak; to alert her parents to her return would be the beginning of another shouting match. She kicked off her shoes before she crawled into bed, letting the warmth return to her body. The girl tossed and turned for hours that night, but sleep didn’t come to her until the sun rose the next day.