Shadow of the Lunar Curse

Elara Voss got out of her car and the door made a loud noise as she closed it. The air in Silverbrook smelled like pine trees and wet dirt, which was very different from the air in the city she came from. It had been ten years since Elara Voss was last in Silverbrook but everything looked the same. The old sign was still there. It said "Silverbrook: Where the Forest Meets the Soul" in letters that were not as bright as they used to be.

Elara Voss remembered this sign; it was the same when she left Silverbrook ten years ago. Silverbrook was a town and Elara Voss was back but she did not know what to expect. The smell of pine trees and the quiet of Silverbrook were a change from the city life Elara Voss was used to. She let out a laugh to herself. The idea of a soul is funny. To me it is like the place where dreams go to die. The soul just seems like a thing where dreams go to die.

She put her backpack on one shoulder. I walked to the Silverbrook Gazette office on Main Street. The Silverbrook Gazette is really old. The building is two stories high. The paint is coming off. The windows are probably really dirty because they have not been cleaned in a while. She needed a job. The Silverbrook Gazette was hiring. She used to work in a city but she lost her job because they did not have enough money. Now the Silverbrook Gazette is her chance to have a job again.

She kept telling herself that the Silverbrook Gazette was an opportunity for her. She felt it inside that the thing that was really bringing her to this place was the fact that her parents died and nobody knew what happened to them. It was like something was pulling on her heart and that something was the mystery of her parents death. The mystery of her parents' death was what was really pulling her to this place.

Inside the office the editor, Mr. Harlan said hello to her with a nod. Mr. Harlan was a man who was probably around sixty years old. He had a mustache that was really thick. "You are Voss right? I looked at your resume. It says you are good at figuring out mysteries. We need someone like that now. There have been some things happening with animals. They have been attacking people. It is really scaring everyone. These animal attacks are very weird. The people in this town are really spooked because of these animal attacks.

Elara was really curious. "What kind of attacks are we talking about?"

Harlan leaned back in his chair. The wood made a loud noise under his weight. He said "There have been some maulings. These maulings started a month ago. The Sheriff is saying that bears are doing it. Some people say it is something else. The old timers are talking about wolves. We have not had wolves in this area for decades. The maulings are what people are worried about."

She nodded to herself. Made some notes in her head. This could be the story she was looking for something that really interested her. After she sat down at her desk, which was stacked high with old yellow papers she got a cup of coffee from the break room and started looking through some old files. The attacks were really bad: they had cuts, bodies were ripped apart and they always happened near the edge of the forest. There were no people who saw anything with a lot of blood and people were really scared. The attacks were always near the forest edge and that is what made them so scary. The forest edge was where the bad things happened. The attacks were the thing that she was trying to learn more about.

By the afternoon Elara decided she was going to talk to the people who live in the town. She went to the diner that's across the street called Mayas Place. Maya Ruiz was standing behind the counter. She has been Elara's friend from when they were kids. Maya Ruiz had her dark hair tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing an apron that had flour all over it. When Maya Ruiz saw Elara her face got really happy. It was like when the sun came up in the morning.

Elara! Oh my god you are back! Maya rushed around the counter. Gave Elara a big hug that smelled like cinnamon and fresh bread. It was so nice to see Elara. I thought Elara would never leave that city.

Elara. Hugged back. She said "I could not stay away from you forever. How is life treating you?"

Things are the same as they always are. I am selling coffee and pies to people.. You know what is interesting. There is a lot of excitement now because of those attacks that have been happening. People are locking their doors at night. It is like they think the world is coming to an end. People are really scared. They are locking their doors. The attacks are making people lock their doors at night. That is making things exciting.

Maya and her friend talked for a bit. Maya told her all about what was going on in town. She said who got married, who got divorced and who was being unfaithful.. Then Elara started talking about the maulings and Maya's face became really serious. "You need to be careful Elara. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the woods. She said there are creatures that walk on two legs during the day and on four legs, at night the woods are not safe."

Elara rolled her eyes in a way. "Come on Maya. I do not think superstitions are an idea. I am here for the facts, about things, not superstitions. I want to know what is really going on with Maya and superstitions."

Maya shrugged. "I am just saying this. You should stay out of the forest when it is dark outside. The forest is not a place after dark so stay out of the forest."

After the diner Elara drove to the edge of town, where the latest attack had happened. The site was blocked off with tape that was waving back and forth in the wind. Sheriff Daniels was there. She was a woman with sharp features and she was in charge of cleaning up the place. Elara saw that Sheriff Daniels was making sure everything was done correctly.

"Miss Voss, Gazette " Elara said as she introduced herself, showing her press badge. "Do you have any ideas about what could have done this? I mean what really did this to the place Gazette is really interested in finding out what did this."

Daniels looked at her with suspicion. He said "It is a bear. A big bear. That is all there is to it. The bear is big."

As Elara looked at the ground she saw something. The claw marks were really exact like hands with nails. The smell was faint. It was like metal and it stayed in the air. This made Elara's nose move around in a way. The smell of metal was still in the air near the claw marks that looked like they were made by hands, with nails and Elara found it really strange.

She was shaking it off so she headed home to her aunt's house, which is now her house. The house is a cozy little cabin on the outskirts of town and it is surrounded by trees that make this soft whispering sound when the wind blows. While she was unpacking she found this trunk in the attic and it was covered in dust and locked up tight. Her curiosity got the best of her so she got a crowbar from the garage. She used it to pry the old trunk open.

Inside this box were lots of journals that had turned yellow over time. The writing in these journals was done by her mother. As Elara flipped through the pages she saw that her mother had written about the dreams she had and some strange feelings she got sometimes. Her mother also wrote about being careful when the moon was full. One page in particular caught Elara's eye. It said "The blood calls" and then it said "We must resist the blood calls". Elara saw that her mother had written "The blood calls" in one of the journals and it seemed important to her mother.

That was strange, Elara thought and she put it away. The moon was really high in the sky that night. It was full. Elara was in bed. She was not sleeping. She was moving around a lot. She was sweating. There were drops of sweat on her forehead. Her skin felt funny, it was itching her. Her bones hurt, like when she was a kid. She was growing. Elara thought maybe she was just really tired, from traveling or maybe she was just stressed out.

Then the pain got really bad. It was sharp. It would not stop. She walked to the mirror. She was breathing really hard. When she looked at herself she saw that her eyes were glowing this amber color. What was going on with her eyes? The pain and the weird eyes were really scary, for her. She did not know what to do about the pain and her amber glowing eyes.

In the dark a loud howl cut through the night it was really close, way too close. Elara grabbed her sides. Bent over because something inside of Elara was moving around. It was very hungry and really wild.

And then, from the shadows of the trees, a pair of yellow eyes watched her, unblinking, waiting