I Wish The Moon Would Come Back

Written for:

The Contemporary Fantasy Challenge
Hosted by systemwolf8

Prompt:
When the shadows of the night creep over the world, it's comforting to have the moon shine down around you. It's nice to know that even during the darkest times there is still a little light to guide you... So, what would happen if the moon suddenly disappeared?

Due to lack of entries no winner was announced.




6/24/2007

You know, every time I look up at the night sky I'm reminded of that stupid anime my little brother watches on Cartoon Network. The one where they run around in their orange jumpsuits saving the world, but only after stopping to glare at their enemy while beads of sweat hang on their foreheads and their eyes twitter and jerk for five minutes. You know the one I'm talking about, Dragon-something. I never pay any attention but my little brother loves that shit. Right after it happened my little brother started jumping up and down in excitement going on and on about how the green guy blew up the moon so the kid with a tail wouldn't turn into a gigantic monkey that destroyed everything in its path. I had no idea what he was talking about, still don't to be honest, but every time I notice that the moon is missing I get flashes of that stupid show. It's amazing the kind of shit that sticks in your brain.

It actually took about three days before anyone noticed that anything was different. I mean, you'd think that the moon going missing would be something that would be headline news, breaking reports interrupting countless reruns of "Friends" and "The Simpsons" within moments of it happening. But there was no moon one night, there wasn't supposed to be, and when it didn't come back the following night I guess there was a minor hullabaloo in the scientific community but I'm just a kid and I wouldn't know anything about that. After three nights of no moon they finally announced it on TV and boy was my little brother pissed. They interrupted one of his shows on Nickelodeon and he just about blew a gasket shouting about how kids don't care about that kinda shit and to get back to Spongebob or whatever the hell he was watching. My mom shouted at him from the other room to watch his mouth and kept reading her stupid romance novel. Sheesh... I'm surrounded by a bunch of really smart people aren't I?

Anyway, that happened about three months ago and things have really started to get weird. So weird, in fact, that I figured I should start to keep a journal just in case all hell breaks loose and humankind is obliterated (isn't that a cool word?). I know that keeping a journal is the kind of thing that girls do so I won't tell any of my friends, but I'm sure that plenty of them would wish that they'd thought of it. I mean, this could go down in history someday? What if my journal is the only thing that survives? Kinda cool when you think about it that way, but kinda scary too.

Oh, by the way, I'm only 12 and my name is Bryan Andrew Taylor but my friends call me Bat. It's my initials B-A-T see? It's cause I love baseball and I'm hella good at it. I have a younger brother (I mentioned him earlier) he's 6 and the most annoying thing on the planet. His name is Thomas James Barnaby Jr. (he's my half brother, my real dad died when I was 4) but we call him Jimmy cuz my step-dad is Tom. Anyway, I'm gonna stop now because this has gotten longer than I thought it would be and I haven't even begun to write about the funky shit thats been happening. I'll write more tomorrow after school.


6/25/2007

So yeah, three months ago the moon disappeared but nothing amazing happened. In fact, that's all we heard for a while. A bunch of scientists on TV talking about all this cataclysmic stuff that was supposed to happen but didn't. I guess that's when people should have figured that things were gonna get really weird but mostly folks just seemed relieved. I mean, the moon gone wasn't the big deal that it was supposed to be the only difference in the world was that the night was a lot darker than anyone was used to. After a couple of months people stopped talking about it and life went on. But a couple of weeks ago the trees started acting funny.

I know, trees don't act funny. Trees don't act at all as a matter of fact. They may be alive but they don't have personalities and they don't talk, move or do anything else that animals do. But that was before, this is now, this is the non-moon-weird-world that we live in today and I'm telling you, trees act funny. It was like The Wizard Of Oz you know the part where Dorothy and the Scarecrow meet the Tin Woodman? When they're in the forest and all the trees start throwing apples at them and shit? That's what happened. At first it was isolated incidents, kids getting swatted at by trees and people getting knocked on the head by falling pine cones and such. At first it was just written off as coincidences but then all the trees started doing shit. Throwing things, picking people up and shaking them, breaking windows and reaching into houses, grabbing cats and tossing out bird nests. When the trees actually started walking they imposed a curfew saying that everyone had to be indoors by eight at night and no one could go anywhere alone. The trees were actually hurting people and a couple of people even got killed. No one that I knew got killed by a tree but I heard about it on the news.

When the trees started talking no one was really surprised. They didn't really have much to say either, except a bunch of shit about how people are cruel and cutting down trees is murder. A few trees in my neighborhood pitched fits about being trimmed and the guy who lives next door got swatted by the willow in his yard because he forgot to fertilize it. The tree yelled at him all night long about how could it be expected to grow and thrive when all he gave it was water and it was hungry. I thought it was pretty funny, but Tom got mad at me for laughing and we had a discussion about how serious the whole tree thing is.

A couple of days after the trees started talking the fires started. People were getting sick of being attacked by trees everywhere they went so they were setting them on fire. The screaming was pretty bad and I had a few sleepless nights because of it. It was a creepy, high-pitched scream that seemed to cut through my ears and right into my brain, it was like I was feeling it instead of hearing it. As long as I live I"ll never forget that sound. The fires continued day and night and even though we didn't have a moon the night was bright again, but it was an orange leaping light. Now most of the trees are gone, the only ones left keep to themselves and don't bug people. They've all gone as far away from people as they can, I haven't seen a tree in about six days now. It's like, we know they're out there and they know we know but as long as we don't see them we won't hunt them. Kind of a live and let live thing going on I guess.

Well, it's getting late and my mom's telling me to turn off the lights and go to sleep so I suppose I'll write more tomorrow.


6/26/2007

So the whole tree thing was pretty cool, I guess it was scary but I was never really that scared. After the fires things seemed to calm down a little but but only for a couple of days, then people started noticing that the bugs were bigger. Some kid in my class said there wasn't anything weird about big bugs because where he used to live bugs were that big all the time. (I guess he lived in Texas because they say everything is bigger in Texas) But my teacher told him that bugs don't get as big as birds here and the scientists on TV couldn't explain it except to say that it had something to do with the moon being gone. No one could explain it really, but no one could explain about the trees or where the moon had gone either. The bugs have just gotten bigger over the last week or so, just this morning I saw a beetle that was as big as my neighbor's lab. There's been a few stories on the news about bugs attacking people but no one has gotten killed yet. I just hope they close down the school because that would be cool.

Tom's calling me downstairs for dinner. I'd better leave off until tomorrow.


6/29/2007

Well, its been a few days since I wrote anything but things have gotten a little scary. The bugs have gotten bigger and bigger and a few people have died. Bug-chow. They canceled recess a couple of days ago and no one is allowed to walk home from school anymore, even if you have tons of friends with you. We all walk to the parking lot in a big group and dash for the bus or our parent's cars. If you don't take the bus and your parent's don't pick you up then you have to stay at school until they do. My friend Greg has to wait at school until 5:30 until his dad comes to pick him up and yesterday his dad didn't show up at all so he had to stay the night in the classroom. Today one of the teacher's took him home I guess I'll find out what happened on Monday. My mom picks Jimmy and I up from school everyday and on the way home today we saw a butterfly that was as big as a helicoptor! It was awesome! Just flying around snapping at things with it's giant freaky tongue. It picked up some old ladies little yappy dog and sucked it up like it was a milkshake or something. Crazy shit.


7/2/2007

We spent the whole weekend inside and it sucked. Jimmy drove me batshit after the TV died on Saturday afternoon. Following me around asking me to play with him and begging me to read him books. I wanted to smack him but mom told me that he was scared and I should play with him to distract him and keep him from freaking out. The radio still works but the electricity flickers on and off now. Mom won't let us hear the radio anymore because it gives Jimmy nightmares but after I'm supposed to be in bed I sneak downstairs and listen to her and Tom talk. I guess a lot of people have been getting killed and there have been reports about bugs as big as houses.

Greg wasn't at school today and when I asked the teacher who took him home on Friday what was going on she didn't know. I guess Greg's mom had been there but he had no idea what happened to his dad and since they only have one car she can't take Greg to and from school. I asked Mom if we could stop by Greg's on the way home and she said yes. We all ran inside but no one was there. A few of the windows were broken and their shit was thrown around like a hurricane had been let loose inside the house. I bet Mom won't get on my case about cleaning my room anymore. When we got home Mom tried to call Tom at work but the phone didn't work anymore. She wouldn't let Jimmy and I go upstairs and made us stay in the living room with her. She didn't care if we did our homework either, it was weird and kinda scary. I kept Jimmy distracted by letting him play with my Legos but I couldn't stop looking at my mom. She was pacing around the room looking out the windows and shaking a lot. When Tom got home they went into the dining room and whispered at each other, they kept looking over at us. I couldn't hear what they were saying but when they were finished Tom came into the living room and told us we weren't going to school anymore because it was too dangerous. That was fine by me!


7/3/2007

Last night around seven the lights went out and didn't come back on. As a group all four of us went upstairs to get our pajamas and toothbrushes then we camped out in the living room. Jimmy thought it was cool, but I hate sleeping on the floor. Today Tom stayed home from work and we spent the whole day boarding over the windows in the entire house. It took forever and we had to chop the legs off the dining room table so that we'd have enough wood. Mom even made us board up the back door so now the only way in and out is the front door.


7/7/2007

It doesn't matter now how much I try to distract Jimmy, he's scared all the time and so am I. We can't see outside very well but if we peer between the pieces of wood we can see snatches. I saw a praying mantis that was almost as big as the cafeteria at school. It picked up a car that was driving down the street and pulled the roof off. I don't know who was in the car because I turned away from the window but I could hear them screaming. They only screamed for a second though. Mom makes us stay quiet all the time now, she's afraid that if we make too much noise the bugs will hear us and come into the house. Tom agrees with her and we can't use flashlights anymore either. It's almost always dark in here and I have to sit by a window and hold my journal underneath a tiny little beam of light so I can see what I'm writing.


7/12/2007

We ran out of food yesterday. We still have some water but not much. Tom is talking about going outside to get some food. Mom's scared and I don't blame her really. Right now Tom is pulling the wood off the door that leads to the garage, he's pretty sure that if he's fast and careful he'll be able to drive to the grocery store and get some food and water. I sure hope he can cause I'm really hungry and Jimmy is too. I'm more worried about Jimmy than myself though, he's only six and even though he's a pain in the ass he is my little brother.

Mom's crying and Tom is trying to make her feel better. Jimmy's just standing there staring at them with his thumb in his mouth.


7/13/2007

Tom made it to the grocery store and back yesterday. He brought back as much food and water as he could fit into the car. He said a couple of other people were there but there was a lot of food still on the shelves. I guess not very many people have been able to make it to the store. Either that or their not brave enough to try. He's going to go again tomorrow to stock up, he says he has to go again soon or he'll lose his nerve. Stupid brave.


7/15/2007

Tom went to the store again yesterday before the sun came up. He said he was going to go while it was still cold, before the bugs woke up. He still hasn't come home. Mom hasn't cried but she won't talk about it, I won't ask. Jimmy hasn't said anything since his dad left, something tells me that he won't say anything anymore. I wish the stupid moon would come back, but even if it does it won't bring Jimmy's dad back anymore than it would bring my dad back.


7/20/2007

Jimmy ran outside this morning, right out the front door. I was sleeping when it happened but my mom screamed his name and I woke up faster than I ever have in my life. She was standing by the door screaming his name over and over. I jumped off the floor and ran over to stand next to her. Jimmy never stopped and he never looked back, he just kept running. The look on his face was the same one I used to see when he played MarioKart with me. Pure concentration and determination. A freaking HUGE cockroach came out of the shell of a neighbor's house and plucked him off the sidewalk. I heard a horrible loud crunch, but Jimmy never made a sound. Mom collapsed, but she had stopped screaming. She was just crying with her face in her hands. I pulled her away from the door and closed it then I put my arms around her shoulders and hugged her, making the same little shushing noises she used to make for me and Jimmy when we had nightmares. After awhile she stopped crying and even smiled at me, but she didn't say anything. Neither one of us did cuz there's nothing to say.


8/2/2007

We ate the last of the food this morning. Mom hardly talks at all, but neither do I. We just sit around staring at the walls, the floor, each other. I don't know what we're gonna do, we have some water left, but not much.


8/5/2007

When I woke up this morning Mom was gone. The front door was wide open and she was just, gone. I closed it and sat down. There was nothing else I could do.


8/15/2007

There's no more water. I've been alone for ten days. I suppose there's nothing else I can do, so I'll just go open the door and go outside. It can't be that bad, Jimmy didn't scream and he was only six.

I wish the moon would come back.



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