Our story starts November 10th 1998, 10:59 pm
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It's freezing cold and I'm waiting for the eclipse to happen. I call my friend Elly to see if she's going to watch the eclipse too.
I pull out my phone and call. "Hey, whacha doing?" I ask.
"Waiting for the eclipse, you?" she replies.
"Same here, uhm... hey, do you... wanna come over and watch the eclipse with me?"
"Yea! I'll be over in a few." And she hung up. I wait for her on my porch, looking up at the moon and gathering my thoughts because they always seem to scatter around in my mind.
"Oh hey, you're here!" I call.
"Hey Noah!" She runs to give me a hug. "How are you?" She asks as she releases me from the hug.
"I'm okay, you?" I say.
"I've been good."
I smile. "That's good."
We look up at the sky as a huge gust of wind blows over us. The moon was now fully eclipsed with a red luminous glow.
We both stare in awe until I feel a dark presence wash over me and I am instantly drained of energy.
"Hey, are you okay?" Elly asks, looking at me with worried eyes.
"I'm fine," I lie.
"No, you're not, you need to go inside. I need to get going anyways," she says as a another gust of wind blows by.
"Okay, I guess I'll see you tomorrow," I say and let out a sigh and walk inside. I walk to my room and start tearing up, and then I feel the energy-draining presence again. I look behind me and I jump, "WHO THE FU--"
I'm cut off. "I'm a Moon Demon, created by the blood moon and your thoughts. And yes, I am very much real,"
a voice says, and I clear my head enough to get a good look at it. It looks sort of like... me.... But his hair is blue, and he has weird horns on his head and his eyes look like they're melting.
"Wh--what the hell are you?" I stammer, my eyes wide.
The creature narrows its eyes. "I told you already, Noah. I'm a Moon Demon," he hisses.
"How do you know my name?" I ask, trying to keep my voice and hands from shaking. It's hard.
The creature snickers. "I know everything about you."
"What? I... I don't understand," I reply. "What are you doing here? I--I'm gonna call the cops," I threaten, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my flip phone to show him I'm not bluffing.
"Look, kiddo, you can't call the cops on a supernatural being. It just doesn't work like that. They can't even see me. All you'll get out of doing that is getting yourself locked in a psych ward," the creature tells me. "Anyway, the name's Haon. I'll just be using your body as vessel from time to time if that's okay with you. Actually, I don't care. I'll do it anyways."
I take a step back. "No--you can't, that's not possible. This is a dream," I tell myself, and I believe it. I've been up for what feels like weeks, and I'm exhausted even though I skipped school today.
"Oh, it's possible alright! You've seen nothing compared to me," Haon says. The demon suddenly looks me straight in the eyes and I find myself unable to move. The energy drains from my body once more until I can't hold myself up and I drop to the floor, my eyes shutting. Before my mind slips completely, I hear him whisper something. "Sweet dreams."
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I open my eyes, letting out a sigh. Looking around, I jump as I realize I'm in the living room. I swear I fell asleep in my room--
The creature.
Holy shit.
"That wasn't real," I tell myself quickly. I can hardly remember it anyways. All I can really grasp was those eyes....
No. I'm not going to think about that right now. I get up off the floor, trying to ignore the migraine that's burning behind my eyes. I look around the house but I can't find my mom.
I guess I'm spending my birthday morning by myself.
I quietly walk over to the kitchen and pull some flour and sugar out of the cabinet before reaching into the fridge to grab a couple eggs. The good thing about baking by myself is that I can add as much sugar as I want to this cluster-fuck of a cake.
Not really paying any attention to what I'm doing, I mix up the cake batter from scratch and add a truckload of sugar. This thing is going to give me diabetes, but I don't care. It's my birthday. My life goal was to live up until 13. I've passed another year, so chronic diabetes is fine in my book.
I preheat the oven and wait. I still feel tired. And I'm thirsty. I force myself to walk over to the refrigerator and snatch a plastic cup from the counter so I can fill it up. I pull open the freezer to get some ice but I stop.
There's a wrapped box inside of it.
Snorting, I take the cold present out. It must have been my mom trying to make me laugh. Either that or make me go insane.
I forget about the water and pull the ribbons away from the shiny wrapping paper, tossing it to the side. I quickly tear it open and lift the lid off the box, excited.
Looking down at it, I stop smiling slightly out of confusion. It's a weird cat mask. I don't understand, but I take it out of the box and hold it.
Something about it makes me feel weird, but I don't know what it is. Shrugging, I look back into the box and see a crumpled up piece of paper. I open it, curious.
The handwriting is really weird. It doesn't look like my mom's, or anyone I know for that matter. I read it quietly to myself.
"Happy birthday kiddo! It's your good pal Haon here. This is a special gift from me to you. Keep it. You'll need it in the future," I murmur. I shiver, suddenly feeling like someone's watching me. I know that no one's there, but I check behind my back just to make sure.
Everything's quiet.
I flip the note over, my heart skipping a beat.
"P.S.--she'll be gone in the morning...." I blink, taking a breath. "What the hell?" I ask myself. I look at it again to make sure I'm not missing something. I repeat it. "She'll be gone in the morning...."
