The silver moon's curse

's

member sit

in the woods behind Langley Manor, and the next, my hands were moving. Pen

d and lo

ny forest. The forest. The one everyone here whispered about in half-

distance fog draping the treetops like a shroud, dead silence where birds shoul

nd moved like it

anches, gnarled trunks twisted into shapes that almost looked lik

he girl I'd drawn into the center of the woods curled up against a st

no

unted. Almost as if she belonged to

lid down

older now, the air heavier. I wrapped my arms around myself and gl

time something lik

nt around me like warped glass. I'd hear things no one else did: whispers in the wi

time I'd made something wit

bite. Each tree seemed sharper than it should've bee

eally d

sed the pencil tip down again. Maybe if I kept going, it wo

rch barely visible through the mist. Something dangling from a branch something like... a charm

thud..

glass. It spilled across my des

va

k at t

y flipping the sketchbook shut

id, trying to s

g behind her like a shadow. Her expression was unreadable polite, but alwa

," she said, her gaze drifting towa

Yeah. Just drawing.

ked to the window and pulled back the curtain. The fog outsi

that," she said

.. dra

ng the forest i

th wen

do you

she turned back to me with

minutes. Come down

n she w

her words echoing in my skull. L

at was happ

the sketchbook back out. I stared at the pages again. I hadn't i

t oak and turned left, there'd be a stream with black water. That beyond the stream was a mound of stones where no mos

now those thi

r was

was sawdust. The grandfather clock in the dining r

ried not to let the sketchboo

al, I asked, "What hap

paused

king a lot of q

o one answ

d to mine, cool

llow is one of them. Things happened there that don't l

. "What if it won

omething passe

drawing it,

ropped. "How

ook before. Your

rarely mentio

it constantly. Even after we moved away.

inherit. Like

ed to her?"

hering her plate. "You

move. "

e doorway. Her b

rest doesn't like when people

she

t, I coul

them beneath my clothes. Shoved the sketchbook into the bottom drawer. But no ma

s... the

I might

hbook and opened it by flashlight, hiding bene

t page ha

dn't drawn w

g stood a stone altar covered in strange carvings. Around it were tall fi

ng was me. Reaching out.

ped th

old despite the warmth o

he room with me. A presence

o faint I almost

s over my ears. B

k..." "Co

oaned. The f

eyes and

like that

o whisper.

lashlight was dead. Th

bed, etched in the cond

e one I'd seen on the

open then. Not fear. Recog

rrified me