The Mayfair Moon Read Free Page B

jerked me toward her. Her fingernails seared my skin. A perplexing force, like hot wind, blindsided me and I felt my face crush into the side of a tree. Furious white spots dotted my vision, shattering my focus. Blood came up in my mouth. I couldn’t tell if I was still standing, or if that tree pressed against my face was really the ground. There was some kind of struggle, but the demonic undertone stood out over everything.
    “Alex? Alex!” I had to know where she was, if she was all right.
    I looked up and realized then that I was on the ground. My vision was blurred. A canopy of limbs and leaves and stars spun around in my gaze, making me feel drunk. I wondered if I was losing my mind...I couldn’t really be seeing what I thought I was seeing. An enormous beast, bluish-black in the moonlit darkness, stood on two legs several feet away. Its head was like a wolf...no, it wasn’t like any wolf I had ever seen. It was a monster. Towering at least seven feet, its almost human-like legs and arms were covered in mangy, black fur. Its fingers were long with thick razor-sharp nails on the ends.
    The beast lunged at the naked man, burying its massive teeth in his shoulder. An agonizing scream pierced the air and then became a menacing, guttural growl.
    I backed my way to wherever I could, gripping the ground with my hands, feeling the tips of my fingers pick up grains of rock and shove them underneath the bed of my nails. My body jerked forward and I fell face down on the asphalt. Blood pooled behind my lips; the warm, disgusting thickness coating my teeth and slipping down into the back of my throat. Something was pulling me backward, fingers digging into my ankle so aggressively. I struggled to kick my way free, but it dragged me slowly off the pathway and onto the dirt. Tiny pieces of rock and grit stung my elbows and ribs.
    “Shhh!” demanded Alex. “It’s me!”
    Relief washed over me, but we were far from being safe. We crawled further away and crouched low behind a tree, paralyzed and out of breath. Blood smeared in Alex’s hairline, I noticed momentarily.
    I watched wide-eyed, my heart banging violently against my chest. My legs quivered uncontrollably; I thought I would faint at any moment.
    The naked man stood from the ground, pushing the beast off him and sent it crashing through the forest; tree limbs whipped violently around its body. And then the man began to change. His skin began to ripple grotesquely as though something seethed beneath it. He craned his head and pulled back his arms, his fists balled tightly behind him, his stance battle-ready and terrifying. His face began to protrude; a snout with terrifying fangs jutted out; the cracking and crushing of bone sent what was left of my nerves completely over the edge. His human skin changed color and long, black hair grew within seconds covering most of his massive body.
    I think I did finally faint at that moment.
    I couldn’t recall what happened immediately afterwards. I couldn’t guess how I did finally get to my feet and begin running through the woods. I couldn’t say how Alex and I made it to the freeway, or how the cars swerved to miss us, or even if maybe we had been hit because when I did ultimately ‘wake up’, I was in a litter-filled ditch with Alex on top of me. A crumpled soda can and an empty plastic water bottle jabbed me in the small of my back. Cars buzzed by on the freeway above, the booming echo of wheels going over a nearby exit bridge. Clu-clump ! Clu-clump ! Clu-clump ! I welcomed the repetitive nuisance. It was strangely comforting, as if it helped me believe that the nightmare in which made the frightening sounds before it was somehow not real.
    “Alex?” I said, squeezing myself out from under her carefully. “Are you alright? Alex!”
    She didn’t respond and I panicked, putting her bloodied face in my hands, feeling for her pulse and listening for the sound of her breath. More blood. The collar of her shirt had soaked