Page 9 of Blood Moon
Bobby had turned on the lightbar to his SUV, said we could go faster if we did. The red and blue bled against dark buildings and homes, smearing together. The world felt like it was closing in on me, leaving behind the sound of my crooked breath as tears rolled down my face.
I had believed my mother was out there, somewhere,lost.
An hour prior, someone reported her car parked off I-435 west with the hazard lights blinking. Bobby received a call. But it was like he’d been waiting for one. He’d had his phone positioned in front of him as he stared off into the distance with glossy eyes in our living room. When it vibrated against the wood table, he answered on the first ring. His stare grew wilder the longer he listened. Two head nods later, we were out the door.
At the time, we didn’t know if someone had pulled over to help and had taken her somewhere. Or maybe she saw something in passing and wandered into the woods where she got lost. Sometimes the trees looked the same everywhere you turned if you didn’t know where you were going. Sometimes there was something scarier in the woods, more threatening, with sharper teeth.
The inside of the station was frantic when we arrived. “It’s been a busy night,” I heard someone say.
I sat down on a bench as those in uniform moved in blurs around me. Brown, pale, and olive-skinned. Blue fabric. Gold star-shaped badges. The smell of coffee brewing nearby. My vision turned them into blobs of color as my eyes watered again.
None of it seemed real.
Janet, the woman who sat behind the front desk by the entryway, took note of me. I’d met her a few times before, but that night she brought me a wool blanket to wrap myself in and offered an empty office I could sit in to escape the chaos.
It was next to Bobby’s office, with a couch inside. As I sat, tucked into the middle of the couch, I stared at the Styrofoam cup Janet had left behind. I watched the swirls from the coffee steam twist in the air as I wondered whether I should have stayed home. If my mother came back, she would have wondered where we went, but it was past midnight, and the chances of her returning seemed so slim. Not impossible, but slim.
But earlier that evening, right outside our backyard, I’d seen something.
They were wedged in the furthest corner, almost blending in with the trees. There were two of them huddled against each other, with yellow eyes that glowed. They were wild animals, but so much larger than anything I’d seen.
I could have screamed but didn’t. I was unsure if what I was seeing was genuine because of the stress. Emotionally, I’d been all over the place since Rena had stopped answering her phone and hadn’t come home. I’d heard that your mind had the potential to fabricate reality under that kind of turmoil.
So, I’d ran to Bobby. Told him something was out there. He flipped on the light and opened the door. When he took out his flashlight to scan the premises, he leaned out and squinted into the dark before coming back inside. Nothing. There had been no signs of animals.
I left with him after, too afraid to be alone.
As I sat in an unfamiliar office that smelled of tobacco, I listened to the conversation that took place in Bobby’s office.
“Sir,” a woman said. “You’re gonna wanna see this.”
I was unsure what they alluded to, so I crept to the window to look out into the lobby. A woman with brown skin sat on the same bench that I’d moved from, though her skin was mostly pale now.
She was visibly shaking, dry blood under one nostril. The sports bra she wore had splotches of soil on it. Her hands were covered in soot, her fingernails caked with dirt, and her eyes were bloodshot with fresh streaks rushing down her cheeks.
I returned to the couch and pressed my ear to the wall.
“Where did you find her?” Bobby’s voice was low and even.
“She came from the woods.”
“Thewoods?” He repeated, and my throat suddenly felt dry. I wondered if this could be connected to Rena. Hadn’t they expected that she had gone into the woods? I tried to listen harder.
“Yes sir. She was out on a run when—” The woman gulped. “You’re not gonna believe me when I tell you this.”
“Just spit it out, Meyers.”
I heard the woman sigh. “She stumbled upon a body, right off the trail. She said she almost ran into it when a wild animal appeared from nowhere and began to attack her. She was able to outrun it and hide, but she’s shaken up. We’re gonna need to send the guys, contact the park police and whoever you’ve got to investigate it. It’s unsightly, sir.”
My breathing stuttered, and my eyes welled. Could it have been my mother?
“Was it …?” Bobby asked.
“No,” her voice was low. “It wasn’t Rena.”
Bobby cleared his throat, and I think we both sighed in relief. “Did she say whatitwas? The animal, I mean.”
“She’s saying it’s something bigger and scarier than a bear.”
