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Printed from https://shop.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2181036-Dont-Look-at-the-Moon
Rated: ASR · Short Story · Horror/Scary · #2181036
A short story based on a writing prompt on r/writingprompts. Contains explicit language.
"Not again" I moaned hesitantly sitting up in bed digging for my phone. The emergency alert tone playing over and over on my phone. "Damned false tsunami alarms" I said to myself picking up my phone just to check my suspicions:

"EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM:

SHELTER IN PLACE IMMEDIATELY

LOCK ALL DOORS
CLOSE ALL CURTAINS
DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON
REMAIN INDOORS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE"


"Do not look at the moon? Pffffft. Some college kid must've hacked the alert system." I swipe away the notification. "What the fuck?" Over 100 missed calls from random numbers, my voice mailbox is full, and I have 423 unread text messages. I check my voicemail: "The moon is beautiful tonight, you should look at it with me" says a soft voice that I don't recognize. "Next unheard message" the rough robotic voice penetrating my ear drums informs me. The next voice, a male, different from the one in the previous message "The moon is beautiful tonight, you should look at it with me" I skip through the next 15 messages, all saying the same thing from a different person. Panicking I checked my texts. "The moon is beautiful tonight, just look up. Look up look up look up..." I shuttered.
I turned on the bedroom television, no signal... The doorbell rings in the foyer. "Who is it?!" I shout "Go away! Can you not tell that it's 3am?" The doorbell rings again, and again, and again. I look through the peephole, the porch awning blocking my view of the bright white, full moon. "So bright. So bright. So bright." The seemingly drunken man, his eyes a bright, frosty white, his body a wrinkly and decrepit shell of his former self mutters quietly seemingly talking to himself, slamming his head up against the doorbell button repeatedly. Suddenly I hear my back patio glass shatter to my rear. I sprint to my room and slam the door, locking it and throwing my dresser down sideways in front of the door.
I hear multiple footsteps outside my door now, sliding, weak footsteps. "So bright, so bright, so bright, so bright" the multiple intruders chanting in an unsettling, monotone voice.
I put my headphones on to try to drown it all out. It's been hours now, the clock on the wall reading "6:00am" the sun will be up soon. The first beams of light hitting my window curtains. I take off my headphones to listen for any change... "It's silent" I thought to myself as I picked up my dresser and unlocked my door, slowly peeking through the now slightly open door.
They're all standing straight up, their heads drooped down to the floor, almost as if sleeping. My phone once again plays the emergency alert tone:

"EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM:

CIVIL EMERGENCY

MOVE ONLY DURING THE DAY

SEEK SHELTER AT NIGHT WHEN THEY AWAKE

DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON"


                   I take a cautious step outside, moving through the hundreds upon hundreds of "them" surrounding my house. "Hey you! Over there!" A man in a red pickup truck shouts to me from down the road. "I have food and water for a few days, you're the only person I've seen that doesn't look like these things. Hop in the truck, we'll have a better chance of surviving the nights if we work together." Reluctantly I hop into the truck, I don't know where we're going, but we have to make it there before the moon comes up again... Don't look at the moon.

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