Double Crescent

As dusk approaches, I find myself in the barn finishing my chores with the horses. Most are rounded up and laying on a soft bed of hay. I leave the barn in search of Simon, a timid brown Quarter horse, back to the barn and I see a large bird in the sky flying above the treeline. I dismiss it with a shrug and assume it's just the hawk that lurks nearby.

I soon find Simon in the nearby field grazing on some new grass. I whistle to get his attention as I start walking closer to coerce him back to the barn. One hand gently lands on his neck and the other on his snout as this is our “handshake”.

“Time to come in buddy, you know the nights are getting colder now.” I nudge him and he starts to walk with me in the direction of the barn. I get him in the stall, lock the back gate and start to brush him down as he eats his nightly feed.

I find myself humming a simple melody as I brush Simon's coat. Finally relaxing after a busy day of going to the city to finish some last minute papers at work, as well as, helping out on the farm while my brother Derek is out of town. I start to hear howls in the distance and think to remind him to get another donkey for the farm.

The night has fallen as I am finishing up in the barn and closing the doors behind me, when the wind picks up making the barn doors hard to close for a moment. They abruptly slam shut as the gusts break for a moment. Outside the barn a full moon illuminates the fields around me. As I make my way toward the house the wind begins to die down and I start to hear what sounds like a rustling in the brush approaching me. My feet start to move faster to get home. The moment I reach the clearing where I can see my house and the sounds stop. I slowly creep out of the woodline toward my house. As I take my third step a wolf comes out of the woodline parallel to me and our gazes meet.

This beast is as big as a bear. The wolf cocks it’s head and stares directly into my eyes. Even from here, the eyes almost look human. As if in recognition the wolf howls to the sky and turns and darts back into the woodline. I sprint to the house, close and lock the door behind me and lean against the wall to catch my breath.

“What the hell?” I breathe. I start to shakily take off my boots and attempt to convince myself that it was a figment of my imagination. The warmth in my cabin begins to seep through my cold work clothes and reheat my chilled skin. My coat finds the rack and I go to the bathroom to wash my face and get the day's grime off. After a hot shower and warm pajamas I find my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Green eyes stare back at me. Dark brown waves cascade down my back and tanned skin that misses the beach. I make myself a cup of hot chocolate and sit in the recliner with intentions to relax. My mind starts to ponder upon the memory of the wolf. Those eyes, deep blue with gold flecks. I have seen them before. As my mind wanders off and I start to doze off. The image of those eyes sear into my memory.

My phone starts to buzz with notification that there is activity in the barn. “Did I not close the doors all the way?”

I rush to get my boots and jacket on as the first snow touches the ground. I run to the barn and I see the barn doors swinging wildly as the wind is rushing in. As I near the barn the sounds of horses in distress grow louder. Approaching the doors to the barn I see one of the horses laid out between the stalls lifeless, ripped apart, and a huge puddle of blood.

The next scene that explodes into view is two huge animals coming out of the dead horse’s stall fighting. The animal’s quick movements turn into a blur and the naeing of the horses are drowned out by the rampaged war cries of the two animals grappling each other on the floor. The Wolf’s growl and snarling paired with a sound best described as dragging nails against a chalkboard and huge wings flapping furiously to little avail.

I briefly catch a glimpse of the wolf from earlier and a beautiful but oversized barn owl. White feathers framing the face and goldish feathers lined the back, with a crescent etched upon the spine. I watch as its face morphs into that of a human male, blood drips around its mouth with stained fangs bared. The horrifying creature still trying to snatch the neck of the wolf, I jump into action, grab at the nearest utensil, a rake, off the wall and start swinging blindly toward the owl.

The rake comes in contact with some flesh and as I look to see what it hit, I see the owl has grabbed the rake. The wing has transformed into an arm and hand. I watch as the body of the creature shifts and transforms into a pale man. But the face is contorted like a demon. As the demon’s gaze fixed on me, his attention left the wolf. The Pale and bloody creature rushes towards me, arms outstretched and mouth agape. Before he gets to me the wolf leaps and grabs his leg and I hear the wolf growl and it sounds like a male telling me to “RUN!”

Without hesitation I jump onto Simon’s back, hit the release for the gate and we sprint out the barn and down the pastures. He jumps the fence and we just keep going, trying to get to the neighbors house. As we top the hill the house is dark and I slow Simon down. I listen and even the animals are quiet. We started to creep to the barn and look in and the animals were sprawled out, dead on the floor, blood everywhere just like the horse at our barn.

I choke back a scream and look at the house. “Please be alive.” I get off Simon and make my way to the house. I reach the porch and the door is slightly ajar. I push it in and the scene before me is a horror movie, I gasp, as the bodies are disfigured, eyes open, mouths formed in a scream before they died.

The next thing that happens makes me jump out of my skin. I feel a breath on my back and a nudge on my hand. I turned and almost fell when the wolf was standing there, looking at me with sadness, knowing what lies behind me now. I see the wolf in the full moon light now. Fawn colored with a black Crescent on his forehead. I reach out to touch the mark and he moves back from my hand.

The wolf motions it’s head toward the woodline for me to follow. I hesitated but remember, he told me to run from the owl. I grab Simon and we head to the woodline. The wolf is limping but leads me back to a cabin with a light on and smoke coming out of the chimney. We got to the door and he nudged it open and trudged in. He turned his head and motioned for me to put the horse in the barn next to the house.

I make sure Simon is okay before going back to the porch. When I do, the wolf is there at the door licking his scratch and motions me in. “How do I know what you are saying?”

His mouth opens and a voice says “Come in and I will tell you when dawn comes. Get warm.” I go in and he curls in front of the fire and I notice he is still bleeding. I go to the kitchen, grab a towel and put warm water on it. I find bandages and head over to the wolf. I start to prep the wound and lay the warm cloth on it. He lets loose a small whimper and hides his face in his other paw. I finish wrapping and the next thing I know he is asleep.

I get up and sit on the couch. I noticed a couple blankets and put one on his back. I curl up on the couch and start to doze off as well. When I wake up the sun has not come up yet. I look out the window and I see the owl outside, eyes looking into mine, he whispers, “You are mine, Emma.”

I let out a scream and the wolf springs into motion and runs outside as the owl flies off but not without saying, “Until next time, brother.”

The wolf trudges back in and comes and lays his head on my lap. I see the sun starting to shine on the horizon. The wolf looks up and goes to the bedroom and closes the door. I look at it confused, Will he be able to get out? I asked myself. The next moment, I hear some cracking and then a man’s yawn. I got up and started making my way to the door. A man comes out in sweat pants and looks at me, “Can I please explain?”

I froze and I finally remembered him. He just moved into town a year ago, as the lead ranch hand for the Perry family next door. The one’s I discovered dead last night. I look at him and questions come and go from my mind, I am frozen in place. He notices this and comes up to me slowly with his hand out. “Please come sit, I will make coffee.”

I take his hand finally and he leads me to the couch to sit. He goes into the kitchen and starts making coffee. “My name is Jackson. I moved here in the hopes I can catch the criminal, Marshall, that has been destroying farms left and right. I have been tracking his movements from Montana and he finally landed in Georgia a week ago.”

“We are tied to the same fate. By the full moon we both turn. By day we are humans. The nights around the full moon, I am a werewolf, he is a vampire that has the ability to turn into an owl. Before we were cursed, we were once brothers by blood. Fell in love with the same woman, Sophia, hair as gold as the sun and eyes as green as the ocean. She played us both to get what she wanted. 200 years ago she became an immortal sorceress, in turn, bringing back the monsters that go bump in the night.”

“We met when we were teenagers, I was 16 and he was 20. She just moved into town with her family and she was about to be 18. My brother and I were really close and always had each other’s back. He just got back home on leave. She was a couple years older than I, but he fell in love with her at first sight. He made fun of me for having feelings for her as she was older than me. But she and I still snuck around, I was sure to make him see that she was going to be mine.”

“Sophia kept talking about the land’s histories and kept bringing up the family blood that runs deep in the land. She got both my brother and I to hang out at this old barn. She had us drink something to calm down, thinking she is finally going to choose. But it was a sleeping potion. By now it is too late ,she finally showed us who she was, the dark sorceress. Her family dead in a circle around my brother and I and she cut our arms open and let the blood link together on the ground. Next thing I know I woke up in a wolf’s body and he was a barn owl.”

I stare at the full coffee mug that has now gone cold. "Why did he say I was his?" I said meekly.

His eyes come back to the present and he comes to sit next to me on the couch. "I feel drawn to you as I did to Sophia. I do not know of the connection, but I intend to find out."