The sound of iron deadlocks echoed through the town. Soft, quick footsteps echoed as people ran into safe spaces; wooden shutters creaked shut; and the soft whispers of flames being blown out rose on the air. Nature already knew what was coming and had blown in the breeze to quiet all her subjects. The clouds moved across the night sky, exposing the catalyst that had caused the fear – the perfect blue lunar moon. A simple, natural event that occurred every two and a half years, but brought with it nothing but grief and fear. The monster that awoke during the moon’s journey across the sky descended from behind the waterfall. It skalked, walked, and crawled its way down the mountain, through the swamp.

Every breathing thing moved out of its path. Most of them knew they shouldn’t fear the creature. It hadn’t come for them. It came to choose a soul from the village. But it didn’t change how the monster made them feel. It was large and ominous, with green eyes that flicked and darted around. The eyes oozed out of its scaly skin. They could morph up and down its tentacles, its body changing as it saw fit, to move through the town.

Despite its enormous size, it didn’t damage anything as it searched the streets. Its shape merely moulded around where it found stability for its weight. As it slurped off the cobblestone roads, it left a tacky residue that the townsfolk knew would take months before it would finally dissolve and clean again. Its body tore, separating itself, stretching into new tentacles, combing other shards of itself together. As it ripped, the scales tore, dislodging from one another, showing strings of connection between them, before they were pulled apart. As the stings flew down, it touched itself again and rejoined itself.

There was no obvious logic to what the monster wanted. There were those in the town that had spent their lives trying to figure out what it wanted or why it picked certain people. It moved with purpose, as it shifted shape. Always a different house, always a different victim. There seemed to be no pattern to the beast’s murderous waves.

Keira was breathing heavily. At ten years of age, she was petrified of the monster. This was the fourth time it had visited in her lifetime. The last time it had taken Gideon, a boy that her older brother, Chris, had been friends with. Chris was now giving her a look to be quiet. She took a deep breath. They weren’t indoors. They hadn’t been indoors for a few months now. Keira kissed her baby brother Babby’s forehead. He was sleeping on her lap and was causing her legs to go dead, but she dared not complain. Not when the monster from beyond the waterfall was so close. Thankfully, Babby went back into a deep sleep. The silence in the air, the warmth of Keira’s body, and the cool night’s breeze created the perfect environment for him.

Chris gave an even sterner look of displeasure to the toddler. Babby was the reason they were exposed outside like this, and Keira could feel the blame from Chris onto him. She pulled Babby closer to herself to try and protect him. Protect him from the monster that was now slithering its way up the road. But also to protect him from Chris, who Keira knew was looking for any reason to throw the wooden board off them and toss Babby at the monster. She could see the calculation in his eyes. It would solve two of his biggest problems at once. She shook his head at him, even though no thought left his lips. He looked away, ashamed that she had been able to read his mind so easily.

A growling noise left the monster, from deep within. It was near now. Keira was sure it could hear her heartbeat, thump in her chest. A horrid sensation of panic washed over her body, and she had to fight the urge to go into a full-blown anxiety attack. There was no real noise to give away the monster’s position. It was so quiet with its movements, and even though it did growl, that noise seemed to echo and bounce off all the buildings, preventing anyone from knowing where it truly was.  

Chris lifted the wooden board up and peered underneath. He wondered if they could wait till the beast passed and then make a run for it? Perhaps it was facing downtown; they could sneak around it and make for the forest. There were more hiding spots there for the three of them. He cursed himself for not having the thought earlier. He had assumed that someone would have let them in. They had knocked on the doors of the villagers for hours before the moon had risen. But no one wanted to take the risk. What if it was them that the monster was coming for? Then they would risk their own life and their own family, just to help them? It wasn’t worth it.

One by one, the doors closed in on them. They were three kids, needing sanctuary, in a town filled with people, and all they could muster up was a large piece of wood to shield them.

Chris peeked under the board. There was a growl. It felt closer. Was the beast near? He could see the round tops of each cobblestone and the moss that found shelter within the grooves between them. But he couldn’t see anything. At least he didn’t think there was anything, until a black substance dripped down from above and hit the cobblestone. The full moon’s shards of light reflected on it, showing its consistency. It was the sticky tar that the monster leaked as it crept. Chris couldn’t help himself, as he slowly lifted the board higher. Blinking eyes that slowly slid with the pull of gravity. Their green intensity locked with Chris, and Chris felt what was behind the eyes. He knew who was looking for him, and he knew why.

It was here for him.

“Chris!!” Keira yelled behind him. “CHRIS! MOVE!”

But he didn’t. It was here for him, and he knew why. He turned back to his sister and locked eyes with her.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Kiera started shouting. The baby fell off her lap, onto the hard floor, and started crying. But Kiera couldn’t deal with him right now; she was trying to pull Chris.

The monster’s black tentacles were wrapping themselves around Chris’s body and legs, pulling him towards itself.

Kiera didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want Chris to go. She wasn’t old enough. She couldn’t look after Babby on her own. She screamed as the tears left her face, but even though she was practically gripping Chris with every ligament she had, the monster didn’t want her. It shook her off with ease, and she tumbled to the cold cobblestones as the monster turned to leave.

The body of her brother was merging into the black mass of the beast’s body. Through her tears, she could see that Chris wasn’t fighting. He didn’t put up a fight at all. Didn’t he want to stay with her? Didn’t he want to live?

She screamed so much. Her throat screamed, muscles in pain from the exertion. Her vocal cords felt inflamed and stung, yet sounds of fear and desperation escaped from her. Her fear of the monster was overwhelming, but the idea of being truly on her own without a single person, other than a small toddler, petrified her even more. How could he leave her?

The monster left as quietly as it arrived. The darkness hugged her as she stood there watching. Powerless. Babby was still crying behind her, desperate for attention as the shadows closed around him. There was nothing to do for Kiera but to take a deep breath. She knew eyes behind the glass windows and in the cracks of doors were watching her. She knew they were taking a breath of relief. The monster hadn’t come for them. It had come for the homeless boy. They were OK with that. A small sacrifice this time. They could live easy now for another two and a half years, until the next Lunar moon.

But for Kiera, this wasn’t a moment of relief, but of burden. She turned and picked her little baby brother up. It was just the two of them now. And she knew already the village wouldn’t help them, willingly. She was going to have to grow up now. Fast.

As the beast left the town, there were a few moments when stillness hung in the air. Then slowly, one by one, flames were relit. Whispers passed from being to being. It was Chris who was taken. Notes were written. But no one in the town knew why. The only person who had seemed to know was Chris himself, but there was no evidence of his existence, other than in the emotions of Kiera’s tears and small, shaking body. Babby didn’t understand why his sister was crying, but being even smaller, he cried too.

I watched all of this unfold from the roof. I saw the monster leave the safe waters, and I knew it would come to take the boy. But I did nothing, because it is not my time yet. Amazing how I have lived for so many moons, yet now that I know I only have one more after tonight, I can’t help but reflect on how I will miss the cool tiles under my paws and the silence the monster’s visits bring.