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"It was 3 am and I was sleeping peacefully. Suddenly, an official phone alert woke me up. It said 'DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON NOT LOOK AT THE MOON'. In my phone there were hundreds of notifications. Hundreds of random numbers were sending to me 'it's a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.'
'What should I do?' I thought immediately, 'The government has never sent anything to me and I do not hear anything from outside'. I was already awake, so I decided to check on the children. As you already know, I'm a divorced father and I take care of my children alone. It was a dark night and I was feeling a strange sound coming from the street. 'It is nothing, it is nothing is nothing, it is nothing.' I said to myself even though I was starting to feel nervous. Then, I got inside the room of my eldest son. When I turned the lights on, I screamed like the life had been drained from me.
'Robert, no!' I shouted, but it was too late already. My son was lying lifeless in the floor, with his eyes nowhere to be seen, and tons of blood were there. He was seemingly looking at the window when he died and I closed my eyes so that my face were in the opposite direction of the window. 'It was true, the messages are true was true, the messages are true.' Desolated, I went to look after my other son, Willy. In the dark corridors of my own home, I was able to hear a lot of voices, singing far away: 'Come closer now, look outside, what a beautiful night is tonight...'
Willy was in the same situation as Robert, dead in the floor, without his eyes. I wasn't sure how this happened and I was unable to even cry anymore. Just then, I received another message in my phone: 'Everyone is playing outside, come play with us!' I felt suddenly attracted to the voices singing outside and began walking towards the door. When I was almost going outside, I saw a creeping tall and dark creature, with its claws hanging in the direction of the house like it was just waiting for me to come outside with their mouth open wide and biting the air with their white teeth. I returned terrified to my room as fast as I could decided to not look outside nor leave until morning.
At this moment, I looked at the time and what I saw shocked me even more: it was still 3 am, and not a single minute had passed! 'This is it, I've become crazy! How is it possible that it is still 3 am?' with those crazy thoughts on my mind I just slept somehow, mister Doctor. When I woke up I saw you, and assumed that I slept during our session, right?"
"Yes, Marco, you're correct! What a strange dream you just had, am I right? Thank you for sharing it with me. Let's talk about it later today. You must be so scared. So, instead of thinking about the dream, let's do some thing to help you calm down.
First of all I want to show you something in the window, you must look there right now. After all, it is a beautiful night tonight."
'What should I do?' I thought immediately, 'The government has never sent anything to me and I do not hear anything from outside'. I was already awake, so I decided to check on the children. As you already know, I'm a divorced father and I take care of my children alone. It was a dark night and I was feeling a strange sound coming from the street. 'It is nothing, it is nothing is nothing, it is nothing.' I said to myself even though I was starting to feel nervous. Then, I got inside the room of my eldest son. When I turned the lights on, I screamed like the life had been drained from me.
'Robert, no!' I shouted, but it was too late already. My son was lying lifeless in the floor, with his eyes nowhere to be seen, and tons of blood were there. He was seemingly looking at the window when he died and I closed my eyes so that my face were in the opposite direction of the window. 'It was true, the messages are true was true, the messages are true.' Desolated, I went to look after my other son, Willy. In the dark corridors of my own home, I was able to hear a lot of voices, singing far away: 'Come closer now, look outside, what a beautiful night is tonight...'
Willy was in the same situation as Robert, dead in the floor, without his eyes. I wasn't sure how this happened and I was unable to even cry anymore. Just then, I received another message in my phone: 'Everyone is playing outside, come play with us!' I felt suddenly attracted to the voices singing outside and began walking towards the door. When I was almost going outside, I saw a creeping tall and dark creature, with its claws hanging in the direction of the house like it was just waiting for me to come outside with their mouth open wide and biting the air with their white teeth. I returned terrified to my room as fast as I could decided to not look outside nor leave until morning.
At this moment, I looked at the time and what I saw shocked me even more: it was still 3 am, and not a single minute had passed! 'This is it, I've become crazy! How is it possible that it is still 3 am?' with those crazy thoughts on my mind I just slept somehow, mister Doctor. When I woke up I saw you, and assumed that I slept during our session, right?"
"Yes, Marco, you're correct! What a strange dream you just had, am I right? Thank you for sharing it with me. Let's talk about it later today. You must be so scared. So, instead of thinking about the dream, let's do some thing to help you calm down.
First of all I want to show you something in the window, you must look there right now. After all, it is a beautiful night tonight."
I shake myself awake, and with a groan from my aching joints, I stand up and slide my feet into my fluffy wolf slippers. Stupid phone, I thought. Disturbing my beauty sleep. Grumbling and muttering, I totter down the stairs and make myself a coffee. If I’m awake, I might as well stay awake. I’m too old for all of this action I thought as I climb the stairs to the attic. Brushing away cobwebs as I straighten up in the dark, gloomy room, I make for my telescope. Ancient and rusty, it’s almost as old as me. Showers of dust blanket me as I whip the sheet off of the stupid remnant of my days as a NASA scientist. ‘Stupid moon’, I mutter. ‘Stupid phone, stupid telescope, stupid friends’. Opening the window blind, I peer through my telescope at the moon, half expectant, half bored. Seconds pass and I groan. Nothing! But out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of something odd. Something shiny, yet entrancing. Something harsh, yet beautiful. Something awe-inspiring and reverential. I stare, unmoved, unblinking, my whole attention focused on this, holy, magnificent object. It’s unexplainable, indescribable.
Then, out of nowhere, I wince. Ouch! The sharp pain continues, my foot screaming for mercy. I slowly take my foot out of my slipper and stare, shocked at my foot. A scream erupts from my mouth as five claws shoot out from my toes. The same pain is increasing on my other foot. Hair begins to grow longer, everywhere. My back curves, as claws shoot out from my fingers. A snout pushes out from my nose. Teeth elongate and sharpen. My clothes rip as I grow, ever taller. I stare at the moon, still in awe, and I howl. A mournful, emotional, reverent howl. I can see now. This was who I was always meant to be. I stare at the attic. It means nothing to me. My blood, splattered on the wall is the past. Keith Robertson was no more.
Evolution had occurred. I howl once more and bound down the stairs in search of two things. I see my phone, and I type a message to everyone in my contacts list, struggling to type in the letters. It said: ‘It’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.’ I click send and grin. Now to search for the next thing. Sweet, sweet revenge- in the form of blood. I bound out of the building, down the street and arrive at the door of Michael McIntosh- the man who stole my wife. I break down the door and find him lying in his bed. Goodbye Michael, I thought. Then, my claws come swishing down on his throat as my teeth rip through his puny neck. Blood splatters everywhere, but I don’t care. I rip him, limb from limb and devour his useless body. I serve a greater purpose now, a grand master. And he needs feeding...
Then, out of nowhere, I wince. Ouch! The sharp pain continues, my foot screaming for mercy. I slowly take my foot out of my slipper and stare, shocked at my foot. A scream erupts from my mouth as five claws shoot out from my toes. The same pain is increasing on my other foot. Hair begins to grow longer, everywhere. My back curves, as claws shoot out from my fingers. A snout pushes out from my nose. Teeth elongate and sharpen. My clothes rip as I grow, ever taller. I stare at the moon, still in awe, and I howl. A mournful, emotional, reverent howl. I can see now. This was who I was always meant to be. I stare at the attic. It means nothing to me. My blood, splattered on the wall is the past. Keith Robertson was no more.
Evolution had occurred. I howl once more and bound down the stairs in search of two things. I see my phone, and I type a message to everyone in my contacts list, struggling to type in the letters. It said: ‘It’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.’ I click send and grin. Now to search for the next thing. Sweet, sweet revenge- in the form of blood. I bound out of the building, down the street and arrive at the door of Michael McIntosh- the man who stole my wife. I break down the door and find him lying in his bed. Goodbye Michael, I thought. Then, my claws come swishing down on his throat as my teeth rip through his puny neck. Blood splatters everywhere, but I don’t care. I rip him, limb from limb and devour his useless body. I serve a greater purpose now, a grand master. And he needs feeding...
It was a cold autumn night. John had decided to go to bed since he had gotten all his work done. As the clock neared 3 am, his phone began to buzz. It buzzed and buzzed incessantly. The notice that finally woke him up was a blaring emergency alert notification. The texts, he saw, were from random numbers talking about the moon and how beautiful it was that night. They talked about how clear the night sky was and how massive and full it was. John didn’t really care much. He was tired and wanted to go back to sleep but decided to give it a look anyway with how many people texted him so late at night to tell him about it. As he got up and began walking to the window, he read the emergency alert saying “Do not look at the moon”. This was puzzling after all the other random numbers were saying the opposite, so he disregarded it and continued going towards his window. Another alert, repeating the same message “Do not look at the moon”. This time John stopped. This was strange, why would someone not want him to look at this moon which was supposedly so pretty. He began to consider the thought of this being a prank with someone who hacked into his phone, which irritated him. If some prankster was going to wake him up in the middle of the night just to tell him to look at the moon only to tell him not to look at it, was going to do so regardless. He stood before his curtain-covered window. One alert came through, this time in all caps, “DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON”. John sneered “stupid kids” and flung the window open to reveal the colossal, looming moon outside the window. It was truly a spectacular sight to behold.
However, something was wrong. The edges of the moon began to darken. The darkness spread inwards covering the moon and darkening the sky. John was taken back, horrified at what was occurring in front of him. Soon the whole moon was dark, leaving the world pitch black. As John stared up at the sky in terror, his phone buzzed again.
“YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE LOOKED” read the text.
Just as he finished reading, he heard a noise in the sky above. A figure was forming out of the darkness where the moon once stood. A figure in a tattered cloak began to take shape in the sky. John couldn’t make out what stood under the hood, but he could make out a scythe forming in the being’s hands.
The creature stretched out a skeletal hand and pointed towards John, booming through the sky “You have made a grave mistake. This night will be your last”.
It began floating towards him, and John started to panic. He shut the window and began running towards his living room to his exit. As he went down the hallways, a black mist game through the wall, materializing into the being. Now John could make out the being more clearly. It was a skeleton in a dark cloak, however, it lacked legs and appeared to float above the ground.
“You have failed the test and looked at Death’s Moon, and thus you must face the ultimate price” the being spoke in a deep voice that seemed to reverberate through Johns’s body.
Just then the skeleton swung the scythe at John, yet John dodged under it and bolted back towards his bedroom. As he entered the black mist phased through him and materialized again into the creature in front of him.
“There is no escape,” it said in a soft yet firm voice.
John ran to the site towards his closet, pulling it open and pulling out a shotgun.
“Away from me foul demon!”, John shirked as he fired into the creature.
However, the bullets phased through Death and shattered the lamp behind him. The scythe was swung again, yet John dodged it again to the left as the blade drew a gash in the door frame. John fired once again, yet once again going through and hitting the wall. John made a mad dash behind death towards the living room again. As he made it into the main room, the demon swirled in front of him once more.
“STOP THIS INSOLENCE!” he boomed, shaking the house. “HE WHO HAS SEEN THE MOON MUST PAY WITH THEIR SOUL!”.
“Why?” John asked curiously.
The house shaking ceased. Death tilted his head and said “Well, that’s just the way it is. You saw the moon so you must die”.
“Look, I didn’t even know it was your moon. Plus, people were telling me to look at it. Why would you send me messages to look at it only to tell me too not?” John said in a condescending voice.
Death reeled back. “It was a TEST”, he boomed.
“What kind of test”
“A test to see if you would look”
“Why would you give me a test to see if I would look at a moon if you were just going to kill me for looking at it”
Death raised his scythe in anger “Because people don’t believe in people like me ok! You know how much it hurts to be forgotten, for people only to think you are just some kind of fairy tale myth. Well, think again mortal, I am real, and my test is to be a reminder to all humans that I am still out to get them.”
John looked even more confused. “So let me get this straight. You are going to kill me and take me to Hell just so people can maybe blame it on the Grim Reaper and people will be afraid of you again?! Why have I never heard of events like this before?!” he shouted at Reaper, who was looking away somewhat sheepishly.
“Well… this is the first time I’ve ever done this. Fear in Death is at an all-time low so I thought if I took some human away and left a pentagram on the floor, they would fear me again” The skeleton said to the side. “Look, just let me kill you so we can get this over with. It’s going to happen no matter what. You can’t escape death, everyone knows that.” he said looking back towards John angrily.
John cocked his shotgun. “Over my dead body Mr. Bones”.
“Oh, it will be” Death’s eyes lit up red as he began to rise his scythe to take the young man’s life.
John fired a few more shots into Death, but he just laughed as he floated closer. As he was about to swing, a portal opened on the floor in the living room. A woman with white hair in a blazer rose from it.
“Death, you are late for your 4 am beating of the damned” She spoke in a quiet voice.
Death looked behind him angrily “Argh! Can’t you see I’m busy here, Pandemonica!? Those souls can wait, I am about to add a new one to our collection.”
Pandemonica shook her head. “Sir you don’t understand. Your apprentice, that little pink-haired girl, is waiting for you by them. Do you remember how upset she got the last time you let her down? I don’t want to have to clean up all that blood and fire again.”
“Grrrrr…*sight*” Death clenched his fist. “Fine. Fine fine fine. I’ll go for her sake but heed me human. Tell all your friends about what you witnessed here tonight. Tell everyone that Death is here and they should be afraid”.
John, who had been standing there confused out of his mind for the past five minutes, shrugged and said “Ok. No one is going to believe me, but I’ll certainly tell everyone about this regardless”.
Death turned back towards him “As a token of our meeting, take this”. A skull formed in his hand, and he floated it towards John. “This is a screaming skull. Hold it up to your ears and you can hear the eternal screaming of the fallen”.
“A picture would have been easier”, John said condescendingly.
“No, those are too easy to forge” Death shook his head. “So many fake pictures of me out there. It’s like humans just use me as the butt of a joke or so…”.
He was interrupted by a voice through the portal. A small girl’s voice echoed “Death where are you? If you don’t get here, I’m going to figure out how to use the beating machine on my own”.
“Oh, dear God!” Death shouted, clearly panicked. “No no no no don’t touch anything”, he said quickly floating towards the portal.
Upon passing through it, the white-haired woman looked at John. “Thank you for your corporation, human. I believe it is time for you to take a rest now”. She waved her hand and dizziness fell over John, causing him to collapse to the floor and pass out.
The next morning, John woke up to the sun shining through his window. “Was it all just a dream?” he thought to himself, as he saw no damage done to his closet door. He reached over for his phone and grabbed something cold and hard. He looked over slowly. There was the skull he was given last night. He held it up to his head and sure enough, he could hear faint screaming coming from inside.
Despite his amazing claim, no one would believe his story. The skull was written off as an illusion of the mind, just a coincidence. However, John knew the truth. The night that he encountered death and survived it.
As he sat on his bed the next night, he chuckled to himself “I guess you really can escape death” and he happily went back to sleep.
However, something was wrong. The edges of the moon began to darken. The darkness spread inwards covering the moon and darkening the sky. John was taken back, horrified at what was occurring in front of him. Soon the whole moon was dark, leaving the world pitch black. As John stared up at the sky in terror, his phone buzzed again.
“YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE LOOKED” read the text.
Just as he finished reading, he heard a noise in the sky above. A figure was forming out of the darkness where the moon once stood. A figure in a tattered cloak began to take shape in the sky. John couldn’t make out what stood under the hood, but he could make out a scythe forming in the being’s hands.
The creature stretched out a skeletal hand and pointed towards John, booming through the sky “You have made a grave mistake. This night will be your last”.
It began floating towards him, and John started to panic. He shut the window and began running towards his living room to his exit. As he went down the hallways, a black mist game through the wall, materializing into the being. Now John could make out the being more clearly. It was a skeleton in a dark cloak, however, it lacked legs and appeared to float above the ground.
“You have failed the test and looked at Death’s Moon, and thus you must face the ultimate price” the being spoke in a deep voice that seemed to reverberate through Johns’s body.
Just then the skeleton swung the scythe at John, yet John dodged under it and bolted back towards his bedroom. As he entered the black mist phased through him and materialized again into the creature in front of him.
“There is no escape,” it said in a soft yet firm voice.
John ran to the site towards his closet, pulling it open and pulling out a shotgun.
“Away from me foul demon!”, John shirked as he fired into the creature.
However, the bullets phased through Death and shattered the lamp behind him. The scythe was swung again, yet John dodged it again to the left as the blade drew a gash in the door frame. John fired once again, yet once again going through and hitting the wall. John made a mad dash behind death towards the living room again. As he made it into the main room, the demon swirled in front of him once more.
“STOP THIS INSOLENCE!” he boomed, shaking the house. “HE WHO HAS SEEN THE MOON MUST PAY WITH THEIR SOUL!”.
“Why?” John asked curiously.
The house shaking ceased. Death tilted his head and said “Well, that’s just the way it is. You saw the moon so you must die”.
“Look, I didn’t even know it was your moon. Plus, people were telling me to look at it. Why would you send me messages to look at it only to tell me too not?” John said in a condescending voice.
Death reeled back. “It was a TEST”, he boomed.
“What kind of test”
“A test to see if you would look”
“Why would you give me a test to see if I would look at a moon if you were just going to kill me for looking at it”
Death raised his scythe in anger “Because people don’t believe in people like me ok! You know how much it hurts to be forgotten, for people only to think you are just some kind of fairy tale myth. Well, think again mortal, I am real, and my test is to be a reminder to all humans that I am still out to get them.”
John looked even more confused. “So let me get this straight. You are going to kill me and take me to Hell just so people can maybe blame it on the Grim Reaper and people will be afraid of you again?! Why have I never heard of events like this before?!” he shouted at Reaper, who was looking away somewhat sheepishly.
“Well… this is the first time I’ve ever done this. Fear in Death is at an all-time low so I thought if I took some human away and left a pentagram on the floor, they would fear me again” The skeleton said to the side. “Look, just let me kill you so we can get this over with. It’s going to happen no matter what. You can’t escape death, everyone knows that.” he said looking back towards John angrily.
John cocked his shotgun. “Over my dead body Mr. Bones”.
“Oh, it will be” Death’s eyes lit up red as he began to rise his scythe to take the young man’s life.
John fired a few more shots into Death, but he just laughed as he floated closer. As he was about to swing, a portal opened on the floor in the living room. A woman with white hair in a blazer rose from it.
“Death, you are late for your 4 am beating of the damned” She spoke in a quiet voice.
Death looked behind him angrily “Argh! Can’t you see I’m busy here, Pandemonica!? Those souls can wait, I am about to add a new one to our collection.”
Pandemonica shook her head. “Sir you don’t understand. Your apprentice, that little pink-haired girl, is waiting for you by them. Do you remember how upset she got the last time you let her down? I don’t want to have to clean up all that blood and fire again.”
“Grrrrr…*sight*” Death clenched his fist. “Fine. Fine fine fine. I’ll go for her sake but heed me human. Tell all your friends about what you witnessed here tonight. Tell everyone that Death is here and they should be afraid”.
John, who had been standing there confused out of his mind for the past five minutes, shrugged and said “Ok. No one is going to believe me, but I’ll certainly tell everyone about this regardless”.
Death turned back towards him “As a token of our meeting, take this”. A skull formed in his hand, and he floated it towards John. “This is a screaming skull. Hold it up to your ears and you can hear the eternal screaming of the fallen”.
“A picture would have been easier”, John said condescendingly.
“No, those are too easy to forge” Death shook his head. “So many fake pictures of me out there. It’s like humans just use me as the butt of a joke or so…”.
He was interrupted by a voice through the portal. A small girl’s voice echoed “Death where are you? If you don’t get here, I’m going to figure out how to use the beating machine on my own”.
“Oh, dear God!” Death shouted, clearly panicked. “No no no no don’t touch anything”, he said quickly floating towards the portal.
Upon passing through it, the white-haired woman looked at John. “Thank you for your corporation, human. I believe it is time for you to take a rest now”. She waved her hand and dizziness fell over John, causing him to collapse to the floor and pass out.
The next morning, John woke up to the sun shining through his window. “Was it all just a dream?” he thought to himself, as he saw no damage done to his closet door. He reached over for his phone and grabbed something cold and hard. He looked over slowly. There was the skull he was given last night. He held it up to his head and sure enough, he could hear faint screaming coming from inside.
Despite his amazing claim, no one would believe his story. The skull was written off as an illusion of the mind, just a coincidence. However, John knew the truth. The night that he encountered death and survived it.
As he sat on his bed the next night, he chuckled to himself “I guess you really can escape death” and he happily went back to sleep.
As I rolled over to grab my phone the moon light caught my eye, it was so bright even with my blinds being closed. I look down at my phone to see a message “DON’T LOOK AT THE MOON” but a hundred more saying to look at it. I never believed in that superstitious crap but today my gut told me to go back to bed. If anything was happening during the night, I could ask my coworkers at work and they can tell me. Hours have passed but I couldn’t fall asleep and the night was not ending. As more time has passed the worse it got. It was really quiet outside but now I can hear other people but that’s not unusual I do live in a very big neighborhood. Some part of me wanted to look outside to see what was happening but every time I went to do it, I couldn’t follow through. Hours later banging started on my door. Those people saying to look outside and how beautiful it was but I cowered in fear. The banging turned into screaming. I was first afraid of what was happening until it all stopped. It have must been days I have been hiding in my house. There was no noise from the outside. All the commotion died down. My mind began to deteriorate until to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore. I opened my front door and saw that the street was empty. There were nothing. It was a desert for miles around. I looked up towards the moon and finally saw it. I woke up. I was lying in a gown in a hospital room hooked up to different machines. The doctors rushed in after machines started beeping. They told me I was in a coma for the last few weeks after a car accident and that it looked, I wasn’t going to make it.
I can’t remember what I was dreaming the night it happened. I just remember the feeling of being yanked out of something, and wanting to get back to it. The first thing I saw when my eyes opened was the clock on my night stand. Red blocky numbers zapping red light in the shape of 3:00. I guess it was odd it was right at that time, especially since my alarm hadn’t gone off. Groggy and mildly annoyed, I looked around for the source of the disturbance that had roused me. It took only a few seconds as my phone buzzed with an alert. My eyes widened a bit and I felt myself start to wake up a bit more, because my screen showed alerts stacked on top of each other, and they had been coming in for a while. I did find it odd because I don’t typically leave my phone on overnight, though who doesn’t forget now and then?
I sat up in bed and pulled my phone closer as I scrolled through the alerts. As I did my phone buzzed with more alerts. By now I had that feeling, that shiver of anticipation of trouble ahead. In seconds a bunch of scenarios ran through my head, all the things that could cause someone, or several people, to try to reach me so late, and of course none of them were good. But then I took a closer look, and I felt a very different shiver. Dozens of numbers, some of them repeating, but none of them numbers I recognized. And they all said the same thing.
“it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
Everything down to the punctuation, identical. And the different numbers had area codes spanning the country. I couldn’t believe it. I scrolled as more came in, until I saw the first number my phone recognized. Pete. A coworker I only spoke to at work, who almost never texted me unless absolutely necessary. I kept going through them until I found one from 2:59, probably moments before I actually woke up.
“DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON”
It had the exclamation point symbols and everything. I only saw these when there were severe weather warnings, or an abduction or something like that. I felt that chill again, something like what I might feel hearing nails scratch on chalkboard, but something else was bubbling within me. Curiosity. My bedroom window was on the wall right behind my bed, just above my nightstand. The blinds were drawn closed, but I could peer through the slits between them. Nothing immediately stood out, no strange light. The moon wouldn’t be visible from here anyway – there was an awning attached to the house that stretched for about 5 feet, and the yard beyond that, so I wouldn’t have a few of the sky from my window. Surely this should make it safe to peek. I closed my eyes and leaned toward the window, trying to hear the sounds beyond. After a few seconds I had to bury the phone under my pillow to muffle out the buzzing as the alerts kept coming in.
Oh wait. I blame my thought process on still having just woken up minutes before, but I realized that the real concerning thing was those alerts. Strangers, and, as I resumed scrolling, acquaintances, friends and family who were in my phone, telling me to look outside. The alerts apparently started coming in at 12:44. They weren’t very frequent at first, just a few every minute, but as time went on they started to multiply. I flicked my finger over the screen several times at full speed, and they just kept going. As I scrolled I caught a glimpse of something different, just a different shaped blur in the sea of texts. I scrolled back until I could read it.
“Who is this”
It was yet another number I did not recognize. I opened the text and felt the most violent chill I had felt yet. The text was replying to one I had sent, one identical to the countless ones I had been receiving. I was sleeping when that text was sent. I immediately began typing a text, but stopped short as my phone bumped me to the text that I had received after that one.
“it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
I reconsidered what my response would be, and sent the mystery person a reply.
“I didn’t send that text, but people keep texting me that, and you did too. Maybe it’s a prank? Someone spoofing our numbers?”
I received an immediate reply.
“it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
No one types that fast. This was some hacking thing. I felt some form of relief return to me and decided to do some additional investigation. Where else to look first but Twitter? I pulled up the app and watched as it took a bit longer than usual to load. And then I saw why. Every account I followed tweeted the same message, with an accompanying video.
“it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
The video appeared to be the same video no matter who it was, a close up of the moon. I saw one of the videos begin to play and reflexively navigated to the trending topics.
The Moon
#lookoutside
#beautifulnight
I tried to find a dissenting voice. This was Twitter, someone would be pushing back, even if just because they wanted to be a contrarian. But everyone seemed to be united on this one issue. For the first time I saw something I hadn’t seen before. People who seemed capable of phrasing this thought in a different way. Tweets that, in their own words, celebrated the beautiful night and insisted that everyone should look outside, and people replying that they did and everyone else should too. Plenty of unique videos and pictures of the moon too, along with the robotic tweets that said the same thing with the same video.
Other places on the internet weren’t any better. Google even had a weird doodle which was just a real picture of the moon, and when I highlighted the picture the little message said “it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.” I tried to search for something about the alert, or “what is wrong with the moon” and Google asked me if I meant to say “it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.” YouTube was just tons of suggested videos taken of the moon. The comments in those videos were just like my texts. And the whole time I was doing this search, the texts kept hitting my phone.
I figured it was time to go old school. I got out of bed and reached for my remote. If something this bizarre and far-reaching was happening, there’s no way the 24 hour news wasn’t covering it. I turned on the TV. I was thankful for my little quirk of always turning to the generic cable info channel, because I always hated turning on a TV and being blasted with whatever was playing on the last channel I had been on. I pulled up the TV guide and scrolled through some news channels, relying on the little squares showing whatever was on that channel. By now I was more than a little paranoid, and part of me was afraid they would just be livestreaming the moon or something. I internalized a fear of seeing the thing by this point, but competing with that fear was this increasingly ravenous hunger to take a peek, to see what all the fuss was about. I didn’t see any breaking news wording, no anchors at the desk. Just commercials apparently. I picked one and decided to wait out the commercials. And waited. And waited. I glanced at the clock. Somehow ten minutes passed and I was still being blasted by commercials. I flipped to the other channels, same thing. A few more minutes passed and then another commercial played. It was just a voice speaking set to a gorgeous sweep of the night sky.
“Why sit here watching ads? It’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
By the time he finished his pitch, the camera had slowly panned to a shot of the full moon. I yelped a bit and shut the TV off. This was crazy. None of this made any sense. Was this some super elaborate prank? I tried to search news outlets directly, but they didn’t have any articles on the moon thing. The paywalls and ads, on the other hand, started taking over my screen with flashing pictures of the moon and text in all caps telling me…well you know.
I had to call my mom. She was the most rational person I knew, and I just really needed reassurance. I called her, praying she would pick up. Took me a couple of tries, but finally she did.
“Mom, did I wake you? Good. I’m sorry to call so late I just…thing are really weird right now. Have you gotten any alerts on your cell phone? Don’t…don’t turn it on. The TV either. I’m serious...yes, please just listen…don’t look out the window. This is going to sound weird but…yes I’m sorry, I don’t want to worry you it’s just…mom listen, I got an alert on my phone not to look at the moon…no, it woke me up…why would you think that, no there’s more. Numbers I don’t recognize, all telling me…yeah, exactly. So you did get the alerts then? Mom…you said you didn’t have your phone on. How did you know…it’s not in my head…mom that is what the messages said, word for word…why…why do you keep saying that…mom did you…stop it! Did you look at the moon?! Mom!”
I threw the phone back on my bed. I don’t know when the tears started but I had to wipe them away. She sounded just like the messages, and hearing those words being shared insistently by your mother…they hit with a very different impact. Something was wrong. My phone was buzzing a bit differently now. I had somehow lost track of the last few minutes, and when I retrieved my phone, I saw it was my mother. I then did a double take. She was asking for a FaceTime call. Part of me really wanted to accept, to see her face to face…but I had a bad feeling that isn’t what I would see if I answered. I let the call go unanswered. It wasn’t long before she sent me a text asking me to accept the call. She wasn’t telling me to look outside, now she was expressing how concerned she was for me. I tried asking her again if she had looked at the moon. She wouldn’t give me a straight answer. I called her back.
“Mom, what’s going on? Please…just tell me. Did you look at the moon? Mom I’m fine, it’s you I’m worried about…check your alerts, since you turned your phone on…isn’t there an announcement? Look at them. No, you must have…nothing? No alerts at all? I’m not on anything, and you…you said the same thing! The exact same thing. The beautiful night thing yes!” I couldn’t help but raise my voice, my mother was spinning this into some dream or panic attack. As our conversation continued I found myself pacing the room, shooting angry glances at my window. Something about her concern and what sounded like classic rational mom was telling me just to peek outside and prove that nothing was amiss. Reasoning again that I wouldn’t be able to see the moon from here even if I tried, I lifted one of the blinds. Just a dark backyard patio, some plants, furniture…the lawn beyond. No crazy wind, no weird light, nothing stirring. Just a quiet night-
My phone clattered across the nightstand and hit the ground, and I fell back on my bed. Someone was out there, peering into my window. After a few seconds I heard their knuckles rap on the glass. I froze, taking long deep breaths despite the jackhammering my heart was doing to the inside of my chest. The knocking continued a couple more times, but I remained rooted in my spot. Finally, the stranger seemed to move on, but still I waited. I remembered to check my phone, seeing that my mom had hung up the call and tried calling me back (with FaceTime calls) and sent a few more texts. She was starting to beg me to look outside just so I could stop worrying and see that everything was fine, asking me to do it for her. Her texts were of course sandwiched between more unknown numbers extoling the beautiful night.
I decided to brave it and peek out my window again. Right into the waiting gaze of the man outside my window. He gave me a wave and gestured to the yard behind him. Though he was muffled, I know exactly what he said to me, following it up with a “come here” hand gesture. I’m not sure what I shouted at him, if it was even words. I felt my raw terror in that moment, and far from reassure me, the smile he offered froze my veins solid. I think I shouted at him to leave me alone and I retreated, resolving to make sure all other possible entry points into my house were secured, and grabbing my phone before I left. After checking the door to the backyard, I pointedly avoided the kitchen window, not only to avoid seeing the stranger but to minimize risk of possibly seeing the moon. Of course this would happen on a night when the moon was full. With my back to the window, I again heard the rapping on the glass. Pulling the phone to me, I dialed 9-1-1 as I finished my sweep of the house.
Satisfied that all doors and windows were secure, I allowed myself a brief sigh of relief. The clock in the den said it was now 3:30. I wasn’t sure I could sleep even before the stranger in my backyard showed up. By now an operator had responded and was taking down my information. As I walked her through what happened, the knocking at my front door started. She assured me that someone would be out to check on me soon, but cautioned that there was a high volume of calls tonight. That didn’t surprise me, and I asked her about the moon alert. Just like my mother, she acted confused and claimed not to be aware of any such alert. I asked her if she had looked at the moon, which…might not have been a good idea. She at least denied it though. The man continued knocking and trying to speak to me through the door, so I kept the operator on the line. He didn’t seem particularly concerned with actually entering the house, which I suppose I could be thankful for. Finally he stopped, and about ten minutes later she said the patrol car should have arrived. I peeked through the window with a view to the front of the house. The stranger was gone, and a couple of policemen were standing next to their car. It was at this moment that I realized I had not thought things through.
The policemen were staring up. At the sky. For the first time I began to get a sense for what I was dealing with. It was dark but I could just make out the closest officer’s face. It didn’t look like he was in pain, or brainwashed. He was just completely transfixed. What stuck out to me was how mundane a look it was. He wasn’t in awe or afraid, he was just looking at the moon. And then, as if it was just a slightly longer than usual moment, the two of them headed to my door. I topped peering through the window and hesitated at the doorway when they began knocking. Careful to keep the door’s lock latched, I carefully cracked the door open. Up close, I was again struck by how ordinary they seemed, despite knowing that whatever strange thing at play we were all experiencing had undoubtedly affected them. They asked the standard array of questions, I explained the stranger had left ten minutes ago, one of them walked around the house to check, and within a few minutes they were both back and ready to be on their way, making sure I would keep an eye out in case the man returned. Despite the scary events of the that night, I began to slip into familiar things, and was therefore slapped back to reality when the officer spoke up again.
“Why don’t you step outside for a moment? I just need to get some paperwork so we can start our report. Besides, it’s a beautiful night tonight. Just look outside.” The officer peered at the sky again, as if he was making pleasant conversation. I stammered and asked if he could bring the paperwork to me. He gave me a look, as if I were making an unreasonable request.
“Officer, it’s just…I was really alarmed by that man and…well I know both of you are here but I would feel much more comfortable if I could remain inside where I know it’s safe. I apologize but could you just indulge me?” Surely the officer couldn’t deny this request, if everything was on the up and up. He seemed to consider this for a moment and nodded, walking back to the car. When he returned and handed me the paperwork, he didn’t let go of the paper right away.
“I’m sure he’s gone. At the very least, take a look outside. My, it’s a beautiful night tonight.” After I tugged on the paper for a bit, and refused to say anymore, he got the idea and let go, then headed back to the car. Honestly, I was a bit surprised that went as well as it did. I closed the door, made sure everything was still locked up tight, peeked outside my bedroom window, then glanced at my phone, still blowing up with notifications. I grabbed it and shut it off, resolving to try to sleep. If nothing else, the night had to end eventually. I could only hope this craziness would end with it. As I had expected earlier, however, sleep eluded me. I had thought that fear of everything going on would keep me up, but the one thing that kept gnawing at me was the curiosity. The curiosity and the doubt.
I was so lost in thought that I almost tripped and fell flat on my face when I realized what I was doing, moments away from peering out the kitchen window. I felt my heart start to pound again. Was I in a trance? I regained my balance and backed away from the window. I could have sworn that the light outside suddenly increased, bathing the window in a silvery glow, a…beautiful glow. I squeezed my eyes shut and whipped around, then opened them again and made my way back to my room. Perhaps whatever hold the moon had on others…maybe I had incidental exposure, or something. I couldn’t trust it, so I began dragging the dining room furniture over to my room, creating a makeshift barrier before closing my door. I pulled some blankets out of my closet and began swaddling myself, trying to make it more difficult to get out of my bed, before grabbing a ski cap and blindfold and covering as much of myself as I could. I willed myself to sleep, doing everything I could think of to distract myself from thoughts of the moon. All the same, it was the worst I had ever slept, if I could even call it that. I remember that when I had to remove my blindfold to check the time, it was 4:38. Once more I was roused by a loud noise. This time it was someone shouting through a megaphone. I am sure you know what he was saying. I squeezed my pillow against my ears trying to block it out.
I had to put the blindfold back on when the same silvery light started to peek through my bedroom window, all made more difficult by the increasingly suffocating layers I put around me. The evening had been cool, but I felt like I was starting to bake. I forced myself out of the covers, pushed through my flimsy barricade, and strode across the hall to my bathroom. I decided to try to knock myself out with any sleep aids I had on hand, but the best I could come up with was some old cough medicine. I tried my best not to look further into the house, where I could swear out of the corner of my eye someone had turned on a light in the kitchen, because it was getting so bright. I jumped into bed, burying my head under my pillow, and did something I hadn’t done in years. Pray. In the distance I could hear someone banging on my door, and shortly after that someone joined in by tapping at my window again. I tried to ignore them all, drown them out with the mental shouting I was doing, hoping something would deliver me from this insanity.
I don’t know how but somehow the night passed, perhaps the exhaustion and the medicine combining to get me out of that terror. I remember suddenly being aware of the silence, and when I peeked out of my blindfold I saw the clock read 8:51. The room was full of daylight from outside. I laughed, probably for a good minute or so. I just felt it come out of me. I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, seeing a morning new anchor go on about the stock market. I turned on my phone, and waited for the incessant buzzing to stop as it caught up on the notifications. I noticed several missed calls and messages from my mom, followed by some from my dad, and as I scrolled through I caught what the man on TV was saying.
“…so enough about all of that, go outside and enjoy it! It’s a beautiful day today!”
The sinking feeling returned. I scrolled to the top of my notifications as another popped up. Now I couldn’t help but scream, the laughter from a minute ago completely forgotten, from a better period in time I would never again experience.
“it’s a beautiful day today. Look outside.”
I sat up in bed and pulled my phone closer as I scrolled through the alerts. As I did my phone buzzed with more alerts. By now I had that feeling, that shiver of anticipation of trouble ahead. In seconds a bunch of scenarios ran through my head, all the things that could cause someone, or several people, to try to reach me so late, and of course none of them were good. But then I took a closer look, and I felt a very different shiver. Dozens of numbers, some of them repeating, but none of them numbers I recognized. And they all said the same thing.
“it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
Everything down to the punctuation, identical. And the different numbers had area codes spanning the country. I couldn’t believe it. I scrolled as more came in, until I saw the first number my phone recognized. Pete. A coworker I only spoke to at work, who almost never texted me unless absolutely necessary. I kept going through them until I found one from 2:59, probably moments before I actually woke up.
“DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON”
It had the exclamation point symbols and everything. I only saw these when there were severe weather warnings, or an abduction or something like that. I felt that chill again, something like what I might feel hearing nails scratch on chalkboard, but something else was bubbling within me. Curiosity. My bedroom window was on the wall right behind my bed, just above my nightstand. The blinds were drawn closed, but I could peer through the slits between them. Nothing immediately stood out, no strange light. The moon wouldn’t be visible from here anyway – there was an awning attached to the house that stretched for about 5 feet, and the yard beyond that, so I wouldn’t have a few of the sky from my window. Surely this should make it safe to peek. I closed my eyes and leaned toward the window, trying to hear the sounds beyond. After a few seconds I had to bury the phone under my pillow to muffle out the buzzing as the alerts kept coming in.
Oh wait. I blame my thought process on still having just woken up minutes before, but I realized that the real concerning thing was those alerts. Strangers, and, as I resumed scrolling, acquaintances, friends and family who were in my phone, telling me to look outside. The alerts apparently started coming in at 12:44. They weren’t very frequent at first, just a few every minute, but as time went on they started to multiply. I flicked my finger over the screen several times at full speed, and they just kept going. As I scrolled I caught a glimpse of something different, just a different shaped blur in the sea of texts. I scrolled back until I could read it.
“Who is this”
It was yet another number I did not recognize. I opened the text and felt the most violent chill I had felt yet. The text was replying to one I had sent, one identical to the countless ones I had been receiving. I was sleeping when that text was sent. I immediately began typing a text, but stopped short as my phone bumped me to the text that I had received after that one.
“it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
I reconsidered what my response would be, and sent the mystery person a reply.
“I didn’t send that text, but people keep texting me that, and you did too. Maybe it’s a prank? Someone spoofing our numbers?”
I received an immediate reply.
“it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
No one types that fast. This was some hacking thing. I felt some form of relief return to me and decided to do some additional investigation. Where else to look first but Twitter? I pulled up the app and watched as it took a bit longer than usual to load. And then I saw why. Every account I followed tweeted the same message, with an accompanying video.
“it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
The video appeared to be the same video no matter who it was, a close up of the moon. I saw one of the videos begin to play and reflexively navigated to the trending topics.
The Moon
#lookoutside
#beautifulnight
I tried to find a dissenting voice. This was Twitter, someone would be pushing back, even if just because they wanted to be a contrarian. But everyone seemed to be united on this one issue. For the first time I saw something I hadn’t seen before. People who seemed capable of phrasing this thought in a different way. Tweets that, in their own words, celebrated the beautiful night and insisted that everyone should look outside, and people replying that they did and everyone else should too. Plenty of unique videos and pictures of the moon too, along with the robotic tweets that said the same thing with the same video.
Other places on the internet weren’t any better. Google even had a weird doodle which was just a real picture of the moon, and when I highlighted the picture the little message said “it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.” I tried to search for something about the alert, or “what is wrong with the moon” and Google asked me if I meant to say “it’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.” YouTube was just tons of suggested videos taken of the moon. The comments in those videos were just like my texts. And the whole time I was doing this search, the texts kept hitting my phone.
I figured it was time to go old school. I got out of bed and reached for my remote. If something this bizarre and far-reaching was happening, there’s no way the 24 hour news wasn’t covering it. I turned on the TV. I was thankful for my little quirk of always turning to the generic cable info channel, because I always hated turning on a TV and being blasted with whatever was playing on the last channel I had been on. I pulled up the TV guide and scrolled through some news channels, relying on the little squares showing whatever was on that channel. By now I was more than a little paranoid, and part of me was afraid they would just be livestreaming the moon or something. I internalized a fear of seeing the thing by this point, but competing with that fear was this increasingly ravenous hunger to take a peek, to see what all the fuss was about. I didn’t see any breaking news wording, no anchors at the desk. Just commercials apparently. I picked one and decided to wait out the commercials. And waited. And waited. I glanced at the clock. Somehow ten minutes passed and I was still being blasted by commercials. I flipped to the other channels, same thing. A few more minutes passed and then another commercial played. It was just a voice speaking set to a gorgeous sweep of the night sky.
“Why sit here watching ads? It’s a beautiful night tonight. Look outside.”
By the time he finished his pitch, the camera had slowly panned to a shot of the full moon. I yelped a bit and shut the TV off. This was crazy. None of this made any sense. Was this some super elaborate prank? I tried to search news outlets directly, but they didn’t have any articles on the moon thing. The paywalls and ads, on the other hand, started taking over my screen with flashing pictures of the moon and text in all caps telling me…well you know.
I had to call my mom. She was the most rational person I knew, and I just really needed reassurance. I called her, praying she would pick up. Took me a couple of tries, but finally she did.
“Mom, did I wake you? Good. I’m sorry to call so late I just…thing are really weird right now. Have you gotten any alerts on your cell phone? Don’t…don’t turn it on. The TV either. I’m serious...yes, please just listen…don’t look out the window. This is going to sound weird but…yes I’m sorry, I don’t want to worry you it’s just…mom listen, I got an alert on my phone not to look at the moon…no, it woke me up…why would you think that, no there’s more. Numbers I don’t recognize, all telling me…yeah, exactly. So you did get the alerts then? Mom…you said you didn’t have your phone on. How did you know…it’s not in my head…mom that is what the messages said, word for word…why…why do you keep saying that…mom did you…stop it! Did you look at the moon?! Mom!”
I threw the phone back on my bed. I don’t know when the tears started but I had to wipe them away. She sounded just like the messages, and hearing those words being shared insistently by your mother…they hit with a very different impact. Something was wrong. My phone was buzzing a bit differently now. I had somehow lost track of the last few minutes, and when I retrieved my phone, I saw it was my mother. I then did a double take. She was asking for a FaceTime call. Part of me really wanted to accept, to see her face to face…but I had a bad feeling that isn’t what I would see if I answered. I let the call go unanswered. It wasn’t long before she sent me a text asking me to accept the call. She wasn’t telling me to look outside, now she was expressing how concerned she was for me. I tried asking her again if she had looked at the moon. She wouldn’t give me a straight answer. I called her back.
“Mom, what’s going on? Please…just tell me. Did you look at the moon? Mom I’m fine, it’s you I’m worried about…check your alerts, since you turned your phone on…isn’t there an announcement? Look at them. No, you must have…nothing? No alerts at all? I’m not on anything, and you…you said the same thing! The exact same thing. The beautiful night thing yes!” I couldn’t help but raise my voice, my mother was spinning this into some dream or panic attack. As our conversation continued I found myself pacing the room, shooting angry glances at my window. Something about her concern and what sounded like classic rational mom was telling me just to peek outside and prove that nothing was amiss. Reasoning again that I wouldn’t be able to see the moon from here even if I tried, I lifted one of the blinds. Just a dark backyard patio, some plants, furniture…the lawn beyond. No crazy wind, no weird light, nothing stirring. Just a quiet night-
My phone clattered across the nightstand and hit the ground, and I fell back on my bed. Someone was out there, peering into my window. After a few seconds I heard their knuckles rap on the glass. I froze, taking long deep breaths despite the jackhammering my heart was doing to the inside of my chest. The knocking continued a couple more times, but I remained rooted in my spot. Finally, the stranger seemed to move on, but still I waited. I remembered to check my phone, seeing that my mom had hung up the call and tried calling me back (with FaceTime calls) and sent a few more texts. She was starting to beg me to look outside just so I could stop worrying and see that everything was fine, asking me to do it for her. Her texts were of course sandwiched between more unknown numbers extoling the beautiful night.
I decided to brave it and peek out my window again. Right into the waiting gaze of the man outside my window. He gave me a wave and gestured to the yard behind him. Though he was muffled, I know exactly what he said to me, following it up with a “come here” hand gesture. I’m not sure what I shouted at him, if it was even words. I felt my raw terror in that moment, and far from reassure me, the smile he offered froze my veins solid. I think I shouted at him to leave me alone and I retreated, resolving to make sure all other possible entry points into my house were secured, and grabbing my phone before I left. After checking the door to the backyard, I pointedly avoided the kitchen window, not only to avoid seeing the stranger but to minimize risk of possibly seeing the moon. Of course this would happen on a night when the moon was full. With my back to the window, I again heard the rapping on the glass. Pulling the phone to me, I dialed 9-1-1 as I finished my sweep of the house.
Satisfied that all doors and windows were secure, I allowed myself a brief sigh of relief. The clock in the den said it was now 3:30. I wasn’t sure I could sleep even before the stranger in my backyard showed up. By now an operator had responded and was taking down my information. As I walked her through what happened, the knocking at my front door started. She assured me that someone would be out to check on me soon, but cautioned that there was a high volume of calls tonight. That didn’t surprise me, and I asked her about the moon alert. Just like my mother, she acted confused and claimed not to be aware of any such alert. I asked her if she had looked at the moon, which…might not have been a good idea. She at least denied it though. The man continued knocking and trying to speak to me through the door, so I kept the operator on the line. He didn’t seem particularly concerned with actually entering the house, which I suppose I could be thankful for. Finally he stopped, and about ten minutes later she said the patrol car should have arrived. I peeked through the window with a view to the front of the house. The stranger was gone, and a couple of policemen were standing next to their car. It was at this moment that I realized I had not thought things through.
The policemen were staring up. At the sky. For the first time I began to get a sense for what I was dealing with. It was dark but I could just make out the closest officer’s face. It didn’t look like he was in pain, or brainwashed. He was just completely transfixed. What stuck out to me was how mundane a look it was. He wasn’t in awe or afraid, he was just looking at the moon. And then, as if it was just a slightly longer than usual moment, the two of them headed to my door. I topped peering through the window and hesitated at the doorway when they began knocking. Careful to keep the door’s lock latched, I carefully cracked the door open. Up close, I was again struck by how ordinary they seemed, despite knowing that whatever strange thing at play we were all experiencing had undoubtedly affected them. They asked the standard array of questions, I explained the stranger had left ten minutes ago, one of them walked around the house to check, and within a few minutes they were both back and ready to be on their way, making sure I would keep an eye out in case the man returned. Despite the scary events of the that night, I began to slip into familiar things, and was therefore slapped back to reality when the officer spoke up again.
“Why don’t you step outside for a moment? I just need to get some paperwork so we can start our report. Besides, it’s a beautiful night tonight. Just look outside.” The officer peered at the sky again, as if he was making pleasant conversation. I stammered and asked if he could bring the paperwork to me. He gave me a look, as if I were making an unreasonable request.
“Officer, it’s just…I was really alarmed by that man and…well I know both of you are here but I would feel much more comfortable if I could remain inside where I know it’s safe. I apologize but could you just indulge me?” Surely the officer couldn’t deny this request, if everything was on the up and up. He seemed to consider this for a moment and nodded, walking back to the car. When he returned and handed me the paperwork, he didn’t let go of the paper right away.
“I’m sure he’s gone. At the very least, take a look outside. My, it’s a beautiful night tonight.” After I tugged on the paper for a bit, and refused to say anymore, he got the idea and let go, then headed back to the car. Honestly, I was a bit surprised that went as well as it did. I closed the door, made sure everything was still locked up tight, peeked outside my bedroom window, then glanced at my phone, still blowing up with notifications. I grabbed it and shut it off, resolving to try to sleep. If nothing else, the night had to end eventually. I could only hope this craziness would end with it. As I had expected earlier, however, sleep eluded me. I had thought that fear of everything going on would keep me up, but the one thing that kept gnawing at me was the curiosity. The curiosity and the doubt.
I was so lost in thought that I almost tripped and fell flat on my face when I realized what I was doing, moments away from peering out the kitchen window. I felt my heart start to pound again. Was I in a trance? I regained my balance and backed away from the window. I could have sworn that the light outside suddenly increased, bathing the window in a silvery glow, a…beautiful glow. I squeezed my eyes shut and whipped around, then opened them again and made my way back to my room. Perhaps whatever hold the moon had on others…maybe I had incidental exposure, or something. I couldn’t trust it, so I began dragging the dining room furniture over to my room, creating a makeshift barrier before closing my door. I pulled some blankets out of my closet and began swaddling myself, trying to make it more difficult to get out of my bed, before grabbing a ski cap and blindfold and covering as much of myself as I could. I willed myself to sleep, doing everything I could think of to distract myself from thoughts of the moon. All the same, it was the worst I had ever slept, if I could even call it that. I remember that when I had to remove my blindfold to check the time, it was 4:38. Once more I was roused by a loud noise. This time it was someone shouting through a megaphone. I am sure you know what he was saying. I squeezed my pillow against my ears trying to block it out.
I had to put the blindfold back on when the same silvery light started to peek through my bedroom window, all made more difficult by the increasingly suffocating layers I put around me. The evening had been cool, but I felt like I was starting to bake. I forced myself out of the covers, pushed through my flimsy barricade, and strode across the hall to my bathroom. I decided to try to knock myself out with any sleep aids I had on hand, but the best I could come up with was some old cough medicine. I tried my best not to look further into the house, where I could swear out of the corner of my eye someone had turned on a light in the kitchen, because it was getting so bright. I jumped into bed, burying my head under my pillow, and did something I hadn’t done in years. Pray. In the distance I could hear someone banging on my door, and shortly after that someone joined in by tapping at my window again. I tried to ignore them all, drown them out with the mental shouting I was doing, hoping something would deliver me from this insanity.
I don’t know how but somehow the night passed, perhaps the exhaustion and the medicine combining to get me out of that terror. I remember suddenly being aware of the silence, and when I peeked out of my blindfold I saw the clock read 8:51. The room was full of daylight from outside. I laughed, probably for a good minute or so. I just felt it come out of me. I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, seeing a morning new anchor go on about the stock market. I turned on my phone, and waited for the incessant buzzing to stop as it caught up on the notifications. I noticed several missed calls and messages from my mom, followed by some from my dad, and as I scrolled through I caught what the man on TV was saying.
“…so enough about all of that, go outside and enjoy it! It’s a beautiful day today!”
The sinking feeling returned. I scrolled to the top of my notifications as another popped up. Now I couldn’t help but scream, the laughter from a minute ago completely forgotten, from a better period in time I would never again experience.
“it’s a beautiful day today. Look outside.”
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