Page 7 of Forbidden Moon

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Dominic went into the kitchen to get a drink. Nothing came out of the tap. He sighed, remembering the shut-off notice until three o’clock. Thankfully, there were no electrical outages scheduled today, as he intended to work on his blog. A corner of the living room served as an office and included a card table, lamp, and rickety bookcase. He booted up the used laptop his aunt gave him and logged in to Strange Things under his I.D. as “Birdman”.

The page popped up with numerous waiting messages and a lot of new followers. Great! So far, his ruminations on the existence of shapeshifters drew mostly amusement or people who agreed it would be coolifthey were real. Only two or three seemed to take him seriously, and he usually enjoyed interacting with them. His favorite was someone who went by the I.D. of “Majestic Sky,” and a new message awaited him.

>Majestic Sky: I found your most recent post intriguing! I agree; if these people existed, they could not remain hidden forever. Surely someone would have noticed by now. Tell me, how have you been able to observe them without being seen? You need to be careful, my friend—it sounds dangerous!

>Birdman: You’re right! There are plenty of people living close by, and I can’t understand why no one else knows about them. How many exist? Are they plotting something? Are we all in danger? Don’t worry—they can’t see me, so I’m safe.

They must have been online at the same time, for a response quickly followed.

>Majestic Sky: They must be skilled at hiding among the rest of us. I wonder where they came from? If they were a real danger, I think they would have been discovered by now. Maybe they only want to be left alone. Have you considered contacting them?

>Birdman: No! They scare the crap out of me, and I don’t want to get too close. Only observation so far. I’m keeping a record of sightings that might come in handy when it’s time to reveal what I know. I have more than one reason to be cautious.

Dominic posted the response and went on to read and answer some of the other messages. Most of them enjoyed the “what if” game, not genuinely believing Dominic’s claims. Many of the women were intrigued by the idea of hot sex with a well-endowed wolfman. Dominic laughed. The ones he’d seen actuallywerefit, muscular, and hung like horses. What woman would want to be ravaged by one of those guys? Some, apparently.

Others with obvious military mindsets believed “werewolves” would make ideal recruits for their causes. Dominic discouraged such thinking by deleting many of their comments. His shapeshifters weren’t like those in the old movies.

He’d only seen them as either human or wolf, never a mix of the two, and except for their ability to change back and forth, they seemed altogether normal. Perhaps other things were happening at night when he heard all the howling going on. The thought made Dominic shudder.

The majority of comments were from avid readers of books featuring beings who could alter their shape, including wolves, bears, cats, birds, and more. They enjoyed kicking around various ideas for novels yet to be written. Dominic would have found their ideas intriguing if he didn’t already know such beings existed in his own backyard!

A new message arrived from an odd reader with a telling moniker.

>Gone Postal: Look, man, if these bastards are real, you need to report it! Get the army in there to lock them up and do experiments or something. Maybe tell the media—they love this shit. I hope you aren’t anywhere near South Carolina, or I’m never going to feel safe.

Good grief! Did this person even realize what they were saying? Dominic rolled his eyes and tried to form a reasonable response.

>Birdman: Relax. I’m way north of the Carolinas, and as I’ve already said, they don’t seem to be causing any problems. No dead bodies or missing persons, and I’m not reporting anything until I can prove it. If something changes, you’ll see it here first.

Dominic remained online to finish answering his other readers. When no more new messages appeared, he logged off and settled in a lumpy armchair to finish reading the library book he’d borrowed. Despite the muted noise coming from three floors down, he intended to enjoy the remainder of his day off—far from work and nowhere near the shapeshifters across the bay.

####

NAVAJO NATION MUSEUM, Window Rock, Arizona

Walter Denali, aka Majestic Sky, pushed back from his office computer to think. He’d followed and commented on theStrange Thingsblog from the time it first appeared. Whoever Birdman might be, he’d been careful not to reveal anything useful—until today. Three clues stood out in the post; he lived in a reasonably well-populated area, far to the north, and could observe the shapeshifters without being seen by them.

Fortunately, Birdman seemed reluctant to expose himself or them at this point. Walter’s concern, however, stemmed from his statement, “when it’s time to reveal what I know”. He would do everything in his power to prevent such a thing, and the first step involved alerting Jack and his friends. Walter picked up the phone and instructed his secretary to temporarily hold his calls before sending a generic text message to Jack.

> Please contact. Confidential.

Following Jack’s revelation of shifters last year, Walter had been faithfully scouring the internet for anything which might represent a threat to his dear friends.Strange Thingslooked like the real deal, and it matched the warning dreams his friend reported. He only hoped the shifter council knew how to track this down and stop it before word got out, especially with people like “Gone Postal” out there.

He received a call from an unknown number three minutes later—the untraceable and secure line his friend used for official business.

“Hello, Jack, I have some disturbing news...”