Black Moon

David drove quietly as if alone in the darkness of the cold mountainous Colorado night.  As he watched the road turn and twist in the darkish blue glow of the headlights, Wes began to finally stir next to him as he grumbled, “Are we there yet”?
“What do you mean, are we there yet?”  David snapped.
“Hell no we’re not there yet!  How old are you, Wes?  I ought to make you get over here and drive.  It’s your fault we’re going anyway.  I would have much rather stayed home this weekend and watched TV.  But Noooo!!  Thanks to you and your willingness to invite me to places without my consent ruins my weekend…once again!  You know I can’t stand Angel...her and that pansy husband of hers.  Frederick gets to me more then anyone I know and the thing about it is; is that you KNOW that, and you don't give a damn!  I already have one mother, who the hell do you think you are?  From now on I’d appreciate it if you’d ask me if I want to do something before inviting me without my knowledge.”
“Oh shut up!”  Wes uncaringly replied as he turned over to go back to sleep as the car moved closer to the Aspen Ski Lodge.

Since it was already mid January, the snow for the lodges ski slopes was exceptionally good for skiing thanks to the heavy storm earlier in the month.  Wes had been invited to go skiing by a friend of his named Angel LaVolpa and was told he could also bring a guest.  Little did David know he was the one Wes had chosen to go with him, yet still not too surprised.  Since they were best friends and roommates, this was a continuous habit of Wes’s to drag David to places he’d rather not go.  David was somewhat of a homebody and really enjoyed just staying at home in his spare time watching TV, watching videos, reading, or better yet, nothing at all.

David and Wes finally pulled into the snowy parking lot of what seemed to be a very old but well kept large building embraced with a white freeze of winter snow against the blue glow from the past few weeks of winter snowstorms.  As David stepped outside the jeep, he could smell the fires of cedar and pine burning.  He then began thinking how nice it was going to be just to sit by a large blazing fire, drinking a strong hot toddy with cinnamon and to just quietly relax from the long drive from Aspen.

“Hey Wes, wake up! We’re here!”
David said as he nudged Wes from his sleep.
“We are?  Good!  We’re going to meet some hot babes tonight David, so get out of your mood and don’t kill the moment like you usually do.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure…I know…just like we do every time, right?  Come on, let’s go inside.”
“I said, don’t kill the mood, David,”

Wes replied as they hurridly headed for the front door of the lodge with weekends luggage in their hands.

As they both entered inside the large and very cozy ski lodge high up in the mountains, a very broodingly but handsome keeper unexpectedly startled them as he jumped up and immediately told them to close the door.
“The wind is bitingly cold tonight, and I don’t want a draft in here.  One more thing, please, do not go outside alone or even with anyone unless the situation is absolutely necessary.  The slopes in the dark are very dangerous for this area during storms like this, and just a short fall or slip one can easily break some bones or even worse, break their necks and kill themselves.”
“You don’t say?”
Wes replied as he took a glance out the large French windows covered with heavy curtains.
“Where is Angel, has she arrived yet?”
“Angel called and said that she and Frederick would not be able to make it, but for you and your guest to go ahead and enjoy yourself.  My name is Bruno Baulderama by the way, and as I’m sure you’re aware, I run the lodge.”
“Nice to meet you,”
they both replied as they too also introduced themselves.

“Well, where is everyone else, Bruno”?
David said as he began to remove his coat and scarf.
“It is not that late, where the hell is everyone at”?
“People are upstairs.  They are resting from their drives up here.  In fact, Martina, a young woman of French decent from Veracruz, Mexico will be down shortly.  You will enjoy her company, she's a classic skier with a mysterious, but very upbeat personality.  Please, let me take your coat and scarf.”
“Here ya go. Where’s that bar? I have got to have a drink,”
David said, practically throwing his coat at Bruno.

As he was looking all around for the bar, suddenly Wes became emotionally loud and began screaming,
“What in the freaking hell is that”?
As Bruno and David looked at him, he was pointing toward the hallway where appeared to be a foggy green glowing light. The fog was hovering and shifting into very strange and unusual forms.  The first form was nothing more then a cloud, but then it had altered its appearance to a glowing green ball.  As the ball of green fog levitated higher to the ceiling, it slowly changed and became a woman.  The woman, though unrecognizable kept floating and then descended, but not before altering the appearance one more time into the form of a very large wolf, then evaporating into thin air.
“Wow, I don't feel like explaining that one.  I have got to have that drink now, Bruno,”
David said.
“What was that anyway”?
Wes asked, still somewhat upset and puzzled.
“Don’t ask me!” Bruno replied.
“I’ve never witnessed anything so bizarre in my entire life.”

It was then Martina was seen coming down the stairs.  David had noticed that she was unusually beautiful as he stood mesmerized by her enchanting persona.
“Let me introduce myself, I am David Krank,”
he said as he quickly ran to greet her.
“I am Martina DeGarmo, it is so very nice to meet you.”
“I am Wes Ventura, we are from Aspen.  Bruno tells us you are from Veracruz”?
“Yes, we have lived in Mexico since the 1600’s.  Our family is now one of the oldest in the state.”
“May I ask what that is you’re wearing”?
David said as he noticed a strange black stone pendant hanging gently around her fragile neck.
“This?  This is obsidian.  I believe it was found in the Veracruz region by an archaeologist digging in some temple mound nearby the city.  It is nothing really.  Nothing special.  I do think it represents the moon though, but I’m not really sure.  I also know that it is Mayan, it was given to me by my grandmother.  Why do you ask, do you like”?
“Oh, no reason, just looks like a black ball to me.  It is sort of pretty though, and the history behind it is kind of interesting,”
David shrugs.

“Let us all have that drink now,”
Bruno interrupted, trying his best to lure them all to the bar area.

“What do you guys want”?
“I am dying for a hot toddy with cinnamon.” David said.
”And I’ll take a whiskey with lemon and ice, and...also a beer if you don’t mind,”
Wes chimed….
“Oh! Yeah, and a beer for me...too,” said David.
“No problem-o,”
Bruno smiled, as he began making the drinks.
“And Martina, yes, I already know, you don’t drink.”

As Bruno began making the drinks, Wes walked over to see what the weather was like outside. He had noticed the sky was snowy white just as it was when they had first arrived and the last time he checked.
“Wow, that is weird,”

he mumbled to himself, as he noticed the moon to be a blackish gray.  Though the moon was full, it was covered over by white clouds, giving it an odd and ghostly appearance.
He thought to himself,
“Why is the moon black, and not yellow”?
“What’s weird”?
David replied, walking over to him.
“Oh, nothing, just the moon, it looks a little strange…probably just the weather.”
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?  The moon is black!!”
David suggested as he kept looking curiously at the rather frozen and icy glow of a white-clouded orb that seemed to be soaked in a black saturation.  This both gave them a unexplainable cold chill up and down their spines, yet, neither one confessed to the evil presence they were feeling, afraid of being ridiculed by the other.

It was then Bruno had decided to look in on his other guests upstairs as he began wondering why they all had not come downstairs by now.  As he walked up the dimly lit stairway he was humming a silent tune, quite pleased as how the night was turning out, and how business was booming.  About halfway up the staircase, a knock at the door made him turn around and go back down the steps.
“I can get the door for you,”
David said as he headed for the doorway.
“Okay, thank you David,”
Bruno replied in return and then proceeded to go back upstairs.

As David opened the door, to his surprise stood Angel and Frederick, snuggled up close to one another and trying to keep warm from the winter wind.
“I thought you two weren’t coming!”
“We changed our minds,” Frederick said, with a great big smile.
“Great! So glad to see you….Wes! Your friends are here!”

Just as the couple had entered the lobby they all heard a horrific outburst from upstairs.  It was Bruno, screaming,
“My God! My God! Oh no! God! What happened”?
Wes, Frederick, and David all began hurrying up the stairs, and to their horror the complete second floor of the lodge was drenched in blood with parts of internal organs and decapitated limbs scattered from room to room.  In complete horror and nausea of what he was seeing, Frederick tried running to the bathroom, but before he could make it on time, he began throwing up all over the upstairs hallway floor.

“What happened here, Bruno!”?
David kept shouting; as Wes stood in a stupefied terror and unable to move, much less speak.
“I don’t know! I don’t know!”
he began moaning.
“I came upstairs and this is what I had seen.  Why didn’t we hear anything?  My God, what happened here”?
“Okay Bruno, just calm down.  Martina! Martina was the only one up here.  Where is Martina at now, Bruno?  Where are Martina and Angel”?
“How in the hell do I know?  They were downstairs when I came up here.  You and Wes have not seen them?  Didn’t they follow you guys up here”?  My God!  What happened to my guest's?  We have to call the state police, and now!"
Bruno replied in trembling fear and anguish.

Downstairs, Angel had gone into the kitchen area where she followed Martina without her knowledge.  The room was dark, but Angel could see everything due to the opened curtains. The snow-white sky outside had made the kitchen bright enough for anyone to see very clearly. What Angel then began viewing of Martina’s behavior began to puzzle her tremendously because Martina began speaking in a language that was not recognizable.
“She must be speaking in ancient Mayan, or a Mayan dialect at least,”
Angel whispered to herself.

Still out of sight, Angel could see Martina removing the pendant from her neck along with the rest of her clothing.  She then took the pendant and placed it directly under her tongue still speaking in the strange language of a long ago people.  As she did this, a flash of green light appeared, and then disappeared just as quickly.
“What was that?  Where did she go”?
Angel thought to herself.

Angel, then came out from her hiding place to see just where Martina had disappeared to, thinking that she must have managed to walk away during the flash of green light that had mysteriously appeared and then vanished.  Slowly walking to where Martina was standing, Angel could see that on the floor was a pile of ashes, earthworms, and strangely enough, the pendant lying on the floor.

Thinking the incident was a little too strange for her liking, Angel stood up to leave to go tell the others of the incident.  As she was walking away she heard a low growl behind her.  Angel quickly turned around only to see a large gray she wolf with glowing eyes.  Before Angel could scream, the wolf lunged at her throat and began tearing and ripping ferociously as Angels blood began splattering all over the kitchen furniture, walls, and floor.

Outside in the snowy storm, the moon had then hid behind some clouds, making the room more dark and full of empty shadows, unlike when Angel first began spying on Martina's strange ritual.  Frederick then opened the kitchen door and began to slowly enter the kitchen, paying no attention to a green electric static coming from behind the kitchen counter.  He then began to whisper softly, but still in a panic ridden state due to the torn bodies he witnessed upstairs.
“Angel? Angel Baby, are you in here?   I think we need to leave and go home.  We need to get the hell out of here.  The people upstairs are all dead and we don't know what happened to them.  We can call the police when we get to Aspen.  I told you that Wes and David were no good and they were nothing but trouble.  Come on Baby,  let’s go home.  Angel?”

Turning on the light, Frederick could then see behind the kitchen counter the wolf devouring human flesh like a viscously, neurotic, and starved beast.  Frederick now could see plainly that his precious Angel was nothing more then a dead and devoured mass of torn human remains. He then began screaming again in extreme terror while running out of the kitchen door.  Trying not to slip on Angels blood, he made his way to the main door where the beast followed after him.

Frederick's screams alarmed the others and they began running down the staircase.  It was then Wes seen the large gray wolf leaving the front door.
“What the hell was that?  Did you see that”?
“It looks like a wolf, a god damned big wolf!”
David yelled.
Bruno began shoving them to move faster down the stairs, saying,
“Guys, we need to get out of here, and now!”
As the three hurried outside to get to the jeep, David tripped, falling into a ravine.
“I told you to be careful when you first got here, damn it!”
"I really think a sprung ankle is the least of our worries, Bruno! Just help me get to the jeep!" Bruno and Wes carried David quickly as they could to the back seat of the jeep. There, they too proceeded to get into the vehicle and head back to Aspen to call the state police.

Driving once again down the long and twisted mountainous road, Bruno, Wes, and David remained in silent shock of this uncanny previous experience.  Bruno, finally getting his wits about him, mentioned,
“What do you think happened guys?  I have worked at the lodge going on five years now and I have never had any trouble whatsoever.”
“I guess it was just a large wolf that somehow gained access into the lodge, Bruno,”
David replied.
"I’m still not sure why we did not hear anything, not a single scream from anyone!  I don’t understand it either.”
“Hold on! I don’t think this night is over just yet,”
Wes said, seeing that just in front of him directly in the view of the headlights was something in the middle of the road.
“It’s that freaking wolf again!  Oh my god!  What is it doing now?” It looks like it is eating something!”

At that instant, from out of the darkened tree’s something darted in front of the jeep.  Whatever it was had made Wes slide off into the bank, but not before striking the wolf also.  David limped out behind Bruno and Wes as they got out to see what it was that had ran in front of them.  To their sad surprise, it was Frederick, no longer alive from the force of the vehicle.  This was just as well considering that the mutilated figure was hardly more then shreds, empty of most of his entrails and drained completely of blood.

As they managed to walk to where the wolf lay dead from the force of the jeep, David could see that right under the tongue of the dead animal, was the obsidian necklace he had seen Martina wearing earlier that night.

 

2004