The Witching Hour Book 2: Moon Bane

Daniel sat alone at the long wooden table in a crippling nervous prostration. His mind hung on the teetering point between shutting down and absolute paranoia-induced hysteria. His bloodshot eyes moved in spasmodic saccades behind the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses as he frantically read in haste.

The loud ticking of the wall clock above him had become an insidious and torturous metronome as each tick’s reverberation echoed within the college’s desolate library. With each passing of the second hand, he could feel his heartbeat pounding within his neck, forcing beads of sweat to trickle down the temples of his pounding head.

Daniel hadn’t slept in almost seventy-two hours. Fueled by a looming trepidation, he continued to toil over his notes as the time and his sanity rapidly slipped through his fingers. The collection of books, articles, and dated police reports lay before him.

The information was all there, right in front of him. But no matter how often he read and reread the material, he still could not see the whole picture.

Witch burnings held at Nephastor settlement, Pennsylvania, in 1689 by Puritan colonist from New York. Sparks outrage with both local Catholic German settlers and the Lenape tribe.

Mysterious deaths of colonial soldiers, Fort Penn 1779. Bodies found mutilated in supposed native attack, Lenape deny hostilities. Witchcraft and devil worship hysteria grips area.

Amidst claims of cursed land, Meat Industry Tycoon Damon Von Stumpf purchases land grant in Nephastor forest in 1845. Founding of Damonburg celebration cut short by multiple homicide in woods around Von Stumpp Manor.

Stumpf Meat Packing plant to be shut down after horrific railroad massacre 1957, over five hundred expected to lose jobs. State police report no suspects have been identified. Several eyewitnesses to be admitted at Nephast Asylum for hysteria, claim local doctors.

Prom Queen Margaret Talbot brutally slain on prom night, 1985. Boyfriend, Peter Von Stumpf is reported missing. Tristan and Jacob Talbot mourn loss of daughter, outraged with state police.

Another young soul is claimed in Damonburg 2019, sophomore Victor Von Stumpf was found brutally murdered within the grounds of Nephast College. FBI are questioning roommate, Daniel Talbot, regarding details on roommate’s mysterious and gruesome death.

Daniel shifted through the evidence once again. The reflections of red pen ink and highlighter markings reflected off the lenses of his glasses as his weary and strained eyes scanned every detail. Regardless of his iron resoluteness, the icy grip of fatigue was starting to overwhelm his faculties.

No matter how often he bounced his knee or changed his position within the rigid wooden chair, he reached for his coffee cup while reading and returned an empty cup to his lips. As Daniel opened the lid to inspect the inside of his empty to-go cup, something forced his hand to crunch the paper cup within his hand. A series of sudden vibrations from his wrist sent an electrical shockwave of panic through his chest.

A brief spell of weak nerves had sent the last remaining drops of stale coffee dripping over the checked-out reading material below.

“Goddammit,” he muttered, angry with himself.

Using the sleeve of his sweater to try and salvage what he could from the damage, he checked his smartwatch with a heavy exhale. It was another text from his mother, the seventh of the day, in a series of desperate attempts to contact her eldest son. He swiped the watch surface with a bone-thin fingertip and returned to his reading.

Opposite his table was a series of tall windows that ran the span of the library’s interior, overlooking the college green. In the momentary break from his research, Daniel looked up to see the college green was lit by the bright yellow light of the full harvest moon. He looked briefly outside, then back down to the papers.

It wasn’t until the slow creeping strands of xanthous rays touched the outskirts of his scattered works that Daniel had been overtaken by a suffocating bout of hysterical madness. The back of his sweat-soaked sweater slammed against the wooden chair, sending it flying backward and skidding across the marble floor. His pupils dilated to saucer proportions at the celestial visage that gazed back at him from the umbrage sky above.

The ticking clock began to fade from his periphery as the sound of his rampaging heartbeat returned to his neck before it swallowed his hearing. His hands began twitching while the muscles around his left eye quivered in rhythmic pulsations.

The sight of the cloudless night sky brought about a sudden sensation from the back of his neck, an itch. The hair on the back of his neck was beginning to stand on end.

He had felt this before. The doctors at Nephast Asylum had told him that the rashes were from severe stress and anxiety. They informed him of many other things regarding post-traumatic stress disorder that he passionately ignored, along with all the medication they had prescribed him after the incident.

He didn’t trust them because they didn’t believe him. None of them did.

And in his defiance to prove them all wrong, he had finally found the truth he so passionately hunted within his foolish labors.

As his eyes moved from the low-hanging harvest moon to the college green, they beheld something so frightful it drained the blood from his gaunt face. It was the realization that the truth had found him first, and it was staring back at him from across the college green with glowing amber eyes.

Daniel stood frozen in place, his body ignoring every self-preserving signal from his raving mind. All he could do in his shock-induced state was keep his eyes fixated on the horror from across the green. The pair of smoldering eyes peering back at him, lidless and menacing.

This couldn’t be happening, he thought to himself in silence. ~This wasn’t fair.~

Daniel had frequently checked his phone’s lunar cycle and weather app throughout the week. It was supposed to rain that night. He had made sure of it.

All his obsessive and compulsive behavior was sure to pay off in protecting him from harm, or so he thought. The two locked eyes for what felt like an eternity until the glowing eyes of that abominable demon slunk back into the obscurity of the dense forest.

Daniel’s heartbeat was now pounding at a concerning rate. Where did it go? What did it want? Was he not tormented enough?

As he stood reflecting in a distressing catatonic state, a voice from behind quickly snapped him out of his stupor and into a raving temperament.

Quickly turning, Daniel flailed around with both arms to defend himself, only to be met by a campus security guard. The man coiled back from Daniel with outstretched hands to protect himself.

The two stood in silence momentarily until the guard introduced himself and inquired about his mental state.

“Are you okay?” the guard asked, his voice steady but concerned.

Daniel took a deep breath, trying to steady his racing heart.

“I…I saw something,” he stammered.

The guard frowned. “What did you see?”

“Eyes,” Daniel whispered, his voice trembling. “Glowing amber eyes.”

The guard looked around, his expression skeptical. “There’s nothing here now. Maybe it was just an animal.”

Daniel shook his head. “No, it wasn’t an animal. It was something else. Something…evil.”

The guard sighed. “Look, why don’t you come with me? We can talk about this in my office.”

Daniel hesitated but then nodded. “Okay,” he said quietly.

The guard led him away, casting one last glance over his shoulder at the dark, empty green.

“Easy, calm down. It’s okay. I’m campus security, not going to hurt you. Just stopping by to say it’s almost midnight and the library will be closing. Are you all right?”

The guard shifted his gaze from Daniel to the table below and back to Daniel, a smile spreading across his face.

“I see, no worries, brother. You just have a big exam coming up. Test anxiety got the best of you. It’s okay, seen that before. Well, if you’re in here this late I am sure you will do just fine.”

Daniel blinked and shook his head several times, trying to snap himself out of his decrepit mental state.

As the guard continued to make small talk, he turned back toward the table and began to fervently shove all the reading material into his backpack.

Zipping up his bag, Daniel made for the library’s front doors.

The guard saw that Daniel had packed some of the non-checkout articles into his bag and began to call out to him in protest as he made for the counter.

“Hey, hey man. You can’t leave here with those! Hey!”

Daniel couldn’t hear the security guard’s protesting and hollering. All he could think about was the eyes from the woods.

As Daniel slid his clammy and icy hands into his pockets, his right hand brushed the emergency solution he had taken with him before leaving for the library.

He paused, feeling the cold steel of the weapon from within his pocket.

He had done what the silly books had said and what the television shows and movies had perpetrated. Not knowing if there was any truth.

As he paused to think on his own fortitude, the guard had caught up to him in the atrium.

“Listen man, I know you are all turned around with your tests and whatnot. So, just leave the articles with me and we’ll forget about the whole thing. All right?”

Daniel took his hand off the concealed pistol and glanced at the guard quickly. He gave the man a lidless expression, silent as the grave.

Without uttering a single word, Daniel turned back toward the door and walked out of the library. Descending the stone steps, the man soon opened the library doors to come after him.

Before reaching the asphalt road, Daniel heard the door shut behind him and the continuing shouting in further protest.

“Hey! I said stop! Come back here an…”

And then there was silence.

A sudden rush of air graced the back of Daniel’s sweat-covered neck as the man’s shouts dissipated into the void of the streetlight-illuminated night. Daniel stopped dead in his tracks.

His breathing became erratic as he clenched his eyes in fear. Moments had passed, and no harm had come to Daniel.

Slowly he turned, keeping his eyes closed. Upon opening his eyes, Daniel could see that nothing was behind him. No security guard, no monster, nothing.

He panned around the front of the library, eyes darting from the door to the windows to the street corner. Above his head, the streetlamp flickered before shutting off.

As the streetlight faded, the front of the building fell into shadow. The only light that graced the gray stone steps was the dull light of the harvest moon above.

Daniel took a step forward and slowly climbed back up the stone steps, his eyes fixed on the ground. As he passed under the threshold of the metal awning of the library, he inspected the ground where he last heard the shout of the night guard.

Nothing. Not a single trace could be found of either man or beast. As Daniel returned from his stooped posture, a warm and moist sensation graced his right bony shoulder.

While looking to his left to inspect the forest tree line, he reached upward to investigate the sudden tepid sensation. As his slender fingers made contact, they plunged into a strange viscous pool.

Pulling his anxious gaze from the trees, Daniel inspected his coated fingertips.

As the sight of blood gleaned across his hazel eyes, his stomach plummeted within his body. Before he could cry out at the sight, a single stream of warm blood slowly poured across his face from above. Trembling in fear, he let out a gasp as he heard the familiar sound once again.

The sound of a deep-timbred growl echoed from the awning above him. Daniel took a few steps back before turning and running for his life. The sheriff’s station was just across Church Street from the library.

The whole town would know the truth if he could just make it. As he reached the glass door of the sheriff’s station, Daniel grabbed the metal handle and pulled with all his strength. The door wouldn’t budge.

It had been locked. Looking inside the brightly lit sheriff’s station, Daniel started to bang on the glass door in a hysterical panic.

“Somebody, open up! Please, somebody help me! It’s here! It’s going to fucking kill me! Open up!”

He tried punching the glass, but it was no use. As he stared at the door, his focus shifted from the station’s interior toward the reflection in the glass door. Reflecting off the glass behind him in the middle of the road was the pair of glowing amber eyes from before, along with the visage of the beast that bore them.

Daniel surged with a newly found courage. Reaching into his pants pocket, he pulled the matte black revolver from his pocket. He pulled back on the hammer with trembling hands and turned to face his predator.

The beast lumbered forward on hind paws, its claws scraping against the road’s asphalt. Daniel held the gun barrel outward, tears rolling down his eyes.

“Don’t make me do it, man. Please, don’t.”

A vicious snarl was the only reply he received as it kept inching toward him. As its bristly hand fell to its side, a series of razor-like claws slowly revealed themselves under the light of the moon. The left hand, to his surprise, was missing.

Instead, a seeping stump was in its place. Daniel moved his pointer finger to the trigger, his hands shaking almost uncontrollably. Attempting to steady his aim, the amber eyes shifted to a bone-chilling shade of blood red.

The beast lowered itself for the attack. Rows of salivating teeth and sanguineous dripping fangs were bearing at him through the shadows of its face.

Daniel let out a final gasp of air as the entirety of his visage was shrouded within the eclipse of the airborne beast.

Six shots rang out over the skyline of Damonburg, Pennsylvania. Six shots echoed over the pine trees and reverberated through the still night air.

There was silence momentarily until they were answered by a blood-chilling sound that sent the ravens croaking as they departed from the forest, over the Tschepsit River, and toward the harvest moon.

The long and deep-pitched howl of a wolf.