Red Moon Nightmare: Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The bus Shade and the driver were in was safe for the time being as the enemy was really close in the light of the Red Moon. “Man…we lucked out back at that bus station.” Shade said, breaking the silence and lack of a conversation. “We’ve made it to the Star Bridge where we’ll get to Star City by crossing.” The driver said, looking at the bridge to see a large group of demons wandering around the bridge aimlessly. “Crap! They’re all over the bridge!” the driver said, looking at Shade while he was walking over. “Let’s speed up and run them down!” Shade said, slamming down on the gas, making the bus speed through the bridge, slamming demons off the bridge, or right onto the bus. Soon, the bus reached Star City, speeding and crashing into a tree. The vehicle violently exploded afterwards, possibly killing everybody who was in it.

After some time, Zack made his way out of the freezer, and walked around the empty cafeteria. “Man…it’s so quiet here at night. I never knew things would be so quiet.” Zack thought, walking out into the dark, empty hallway. “Dark and quiet.” Zack thought again, walking through the hallway, and hearing the roars of the demons outside. It sounded like a roar of anger and rage, as if a few of their partners were killed all at once. “They sound angry. I wonder what’s going on out there.” Zack said, looking out a window to see the destructive damage of the bus that blew up a few minutes ago. The light of the Red Moon was starting to die out for the sun to rise. “Looks like it’ll be safe to go outside in a bit.” Zack said, looking outside with caution. The light of the Red Moon soon vanished completely for the sun to rise, and all the demons disappeared into thin air. Out of the flames and rubble of the blown up bus, Shade walked out with the driver who was completely unconscious. For some strange reason, Shade appeared completely unharmed and his right arm was faintly glowing a slight light color. “What the hell was that?! It was sabotage. Somebody…or something must’ve planted a bomb into the bus.” Shade thought, looking around to find out where he was before the first rays of the sun came at last after a long night in the darkness. “Well…at least it’s morning now. Question is…what is this place? Wait…that driver said that that bridge crosses over to Star City. That means…I made it at last. Although, I may have already attracted attention, and I just got here.” Shade thought, observing his surroundings.

Hours passed since Shade’s arrival in Star City, and everybody went about their regular lives as if nothing happened at all. “So there was an explosion this morning?” Mr. Shadow asked a guy on the phone. “Yeah. Some kid and a bus driver arrived in the city.” The guy on the phone answered. “Well, they’ll be the fresh meat. You’re ready to block all exits to the city, right?” Mr. Shadow asked. “Hell yeah I am!” the voice answered. “Good. The operation begins at midnight tonight while the demons are looking for food. I already have a meal ready for them tonight.” Mr. Shadow replied, walking over to a large cage filled with many different animals trapped inside. “Yes. Metal walls. Be sure to get here fast. For now…I have some teaching to do. We’ll continue this conversation later.” Mr. Shadow said, hanging up the phone, and taking out a strange looking book from a closet. The book looked really creepy looking, as if the binding and pages were made out of human flesh, and it had an evil looking face on it. In it were a bunch of chants, spells, and curses written in an unknown language. One of them had a really old, poorly drawn, black creature that looked like a Red Moon Demon. Below it seemed to be a spell. Something that must’ve been involved with the constant attacks of the demons. “So, after today, a new student will be coming into the school. He’ll be a victim of the demons just like all the others who soon shall be. I’ll use an aggression curse tomorrow night so that the demons will grow stronger. I’ll have to hide this thing, though. Up until the time is right.” Mr. Shadow said, setting the book down on a table next to a long knife, and a glass of wine with a lemon stuck into the cup. “So…it shall begin quite soon. Good luck, Star City. Good luck indeed.” Mr. Shadow added, heading upstairs to go teach students.

After school, Shade managed to find himself a hotel to stay at for his stay in Star City. When he got there, the desk guy said “Mr. Shade? Your room is already paid for.” “I wonder…who was the one who already paid the money for this hotel room? Must’ve had to be either really nice, or some freak to have reserved a room just for me. At least I have a chance to rest and get something to eat. I have to go to school tomorrow for the first time. Never been to school, though. I wonder what it’s like in school.” Shade thought, sitting in a chair, turning on the TV to see a few news reports. “Search parties are still looking for a missing boy, Zack. He was last seen in the Star City High School before he vanished. Who knows what kind of trouble is this missing boy is in? In other news, the Star Bridge has been forcibly raised by the mayor himself. He explains that nobody shall leave Star City until approval is given. Looks like that’s all, on the Star City news broadcast. See you at six.” The news reporters said on the TV before the screen went black, and a show started. Shade turned off the TV, and walked over to the window. “Yet I wonder…something very strange is going on around this place. Question is…what?” Shade thought. In the horizon, he saw the Star Bridge, raised up so that nobody could leave the city. The sun was starting to set, and it was starting to get foggy outside. “Huh? Where’s the random fog coming from?” Shade thought, looking outside. People were running around outside to get back to their homes in a hurry for some reason once the fog started coming. In seconds, the streets were empty and silent. The only noise was the wind blowing. At least until a loud, bloodthirsty scream could be heard throughout the city, breaking a lot of windows. “What’s that noise?!” Shade said loudly so he could hear his voice through the noise. Soon, the noise stopped, and the moon rose. Although, it wasn’t its normal color. The moon was a blood red color, causing the sky to turn red as well. After that, more of the same bloodthirsty screams could be heard as Red Moon Demons appeared out of nowhere. “Wait…THIS is a night of the Red Moon? Those things are the cause of the noise? They come from the moon? Just what’s going on in this crazy town!?” Shade thought, watching the Red Moon Demons grow more aggressive for some weird reason. Soon, a soothing flute sound could be heard through the city, coming from the clock tower in the center of the city. “My fellow demons. Tonight, we shall obtain even more human souls! The book desires it!” a voice said coming from the clock tower. The demons roared in agreement, and soon started floating off in their own ways around the city, wandering around. The power went out in Shade’s hotel room and the only light was the red glow coming from outside through the windows. “Ok, this is new.” Shade said, looking out the window again, seeing that there was only electricity coming from the school. “I’ll need to be quick. The demons will be after me once I go out there. Well…let’s do this.” Shade thought, grabbing his sword, and a grappling hook.
“If I need to get back to the room before morning, I’ll use this to get back. For now, I’ll need to go investigate the school grounds. Hopefully, the demons haven’t gotten there first.” Shade said, swinging his grappling hook around before throwing it at a house satellite. “Since the powers out, I’m sure the people living here won’t mind me leaving this here for a little while.” Shade added, swinging out the window of the hotel onto the roof of a house. The streets were filled with wandering demons, glaring around the area, claws sharpened and ready to use. “Those things nearly got me once before, but this time, I have tons of buildings and roofs to use for getting around.” Shade added, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, watching the demons wander around below, unaware of his presence. Shade thought he was safe up until one of the demons got the scent. Soon, two more demons followed suit and got the scent. Afterwards, about half the demons in the city found the scent. They roared with anger, and spotted Shade in an instant. “They found me already?! I was hoping to reach the school before they spotted me!” Shade said as some of the demons started climbing up buildings to get a chance to attack them. One of the demons lunged at Shade, but he jumped onto another rooftop to avoid the attack. Shade ran as fast as he possibly could, demons chasing him from behind. He reached the last rooftop before it was simply a straight road to the school, but the demons were catching up fast, and would get him if he got off the roof. “I know I’m going to really regret this. It’s pretty much suicide. Oh well…I got no other options.” Shade said, jumping off the roof of the building, landing safely on the deserted street. “Well…I guess I should start running full speed now. This is their home field advantage…the land.” Shade said, starting to run as fast as he could while the demons were chasing him at an even faster speed than before. Shade tried finding ways to get up ahead faster, but he had no chance as two demons caught up to him, and tried clawing him, but Shade dodged both attacks as he reached the school grounds. He went and opened the front doors, and slammed them shut in the face of one of the demons.

“Damn, that was a close call.” Shade said before feeling a sharp pain on his arm. He noticed three claw marks on his arm, and there was blood coming from the three marks. “How the hell did that happen? None of those demons laid a scratch on me?! But…I’m in the school now. Time to investigate.” Shade thought, holding his wound to keep blood from flowing out as he walked through one of the hallways of the school. “It’s far too quiet for this place to be a school. But this is the only place with power. Something must be up in this place. Plus, it looks like I won’t be leaving this place until dawn.” Shade added, looking out the window on the first floor to see every demon in the city was waiting outside the school for Shade to go out there. “Whoa. It looks like every demon in the city is waiting out there. They all look alike…except one of them.” Shade thought, looking again to see one demon had two strange red marks on its left arm. Shade didn’t worry about it, and simply kept walking around the first floor to find anything suspicious or weird. Soon, he heard some really loud, big footsteps coming from the next hallway. “Great…what now? More demons?” Shade thought, walking towards the source of the noise. When he looked at what it was, he saw a huge version of a regular Red Moon Demon, which looked three times bigger than a normal one. Unlike normal demons, this one had legs, and looked more muscular than normal demons. “Whoa. That thing is huge! How am I supposed to kill that thing?” Shade said in astonishment. The large demon looked down at Shade, and let out a powerful roar before grabbing Shade quickly. It let out another roar as it threw Shade across the hallway into a row of lockers. While Shade tried getting out, the large demon charged at Shade, smashing him through three classrooms, and into the locker rooms. The impact from hitting the last wall knocked Shade unconscious, but he turned on the water from the showers before he fainted.

The large demon walked slowly into the locker room while the water was spewing out from the showers. Its heavy footsteps could be heard splashing the water as it walked towards Shade. The large demon growled a bit as it walked closer to Shade. Its claws were sharp and ready to chop things apart, and seemed to be a major threat to Shade’s life. When the large demon reached Shade, it brought its claws to Shade’s chest, and just as he was about to finish the job, Shade kicked the demon in the neck, causing it to stumble slightly. “You aren’t killing me so easily, you monster. I survived the entire horde outside, so you may not be a problem to me.” Shade said, getting up at last, turning towards the now angered demon. The large demon roared, and attempted to charge at Shade again, but it slipped and fell on the floor, head first. “Ouch, that one’s going to need an ice pack.” Shade said as the large demon got up and roared fiercely. “It looks mad. Really mad. I better get out of here!” Shade said as he quickly ran out of the showers, and down the large row of lockers in the boy’s locker room. The large demon trailed closely behind, smashing through lockers in its path with its charging strength. “I can’t shake this thing off me! How can I get this thing away from me?” Shade thought, continuing to run, leaving the boy’s locker room, and up to the second floor with the demon continuing to chase him. The demon chased Shade up to the roof, while it started to rain. “Damn…I got nowhere else to go now. Either way, I’m dead. There has to be a way to kill these demons.” Shade thought as the large demon readied itself, and charged at Shade. As the demon charged at Shade, he had his sword directly in front of him. When the large demon made contact with the blade, it went right through it, and the demon stopped its attack to try getting the sword out of it. “Huh? What the hell?” Shade thought, looking as the large demon let out a loud roar before falling to the floor. The demon disappeared, and left Shade’s sword behind, with a black blood looking substance on the blade. “Did I…kill it?” Shade wondered, picking up his sword before starting towards the stairs back down to the second floor.

Shade walked down to the Nurse’s office to patch up his wounds and injuries from going up against the large demon. “Man, that was one rough attack. I’m lucky that I even survived that train wreck of a fight.” Shade thought, washing off his sword from the black blood that was on it from his fight with the large demon. Suddenly, the intercom turned on, and Shade could hear an evil laughing coming from the background. “What was that?” Shade wondered until he heard a voice coming from the intercom. “Hello, human. I’m quite surprised how you managed to survive a fight against my experimental creation, also known as the Red Moon Brute.” The voice said. “Who are you? What do you mean “experimental creation?” Shade asked, but the voice didn’t reply for a few seconds. “You don’t seem to understand, child. But, it’s no matter to me. You must be tired. It’s 5:28 in the morning. The demons will be gone in a couple of minutes. Leave right now.” The voice said. “Wait…just who are you?” Shade asked. “Call me Dark Cloud. We will meet again.” The voice said before the intercom turned off, and the front entrance opened. “Well…I guess I’m finally free…for now. I might as well head back to the hotel and get ready for school.” Shade said, walking down to the first floor. “Rough day today. Maybe some sleep will be useful.” Shade thought, walking out the front entrance, and down the road he took on the run to the school. “Maybe tomorrow will turn out to be a better day than all the chaos I’ve been going through for the past two nights.” Shade added.

Dawn shortly arrived once Shade reached the hotel, and his alarm clock rang as loudly as possible to wake up Shade as he lied asleep on the floor. Shade moved slightly, and woke up, yawning and getting up off the floor. “Man…what time is it?” Shade thought, looking at his watch. “6:05 in the morning. Great. Now I need to get ready for school.” Shade said, yawning again before walking over to the coffee maker to make himself a cup of coffee to wake himself up. When the coffee was done, he poured himself a cup, and turned on the TV to see that the Star City News was on with a special report. “This is the Star City News with a special report. According to our Jr ace reporters, it seems like there was some sort of battle going on inside the Star City High School. We now bring you to our field reporter, Sean Andrews with his side of this report.” The news anchorman said as the scene went to some guy wearing a green and black suit and a tie as he was standing inside the gym in the school. “This is Sean Andrews here at the scene of the Star City High School as there seemed to have been a mysterious attack on the school, although, with the strange phenomena going on in the city, this attack may have been the fault of the monstrous Red Moon Demons. We’re unknown for sure, but until the gym is fixed up, all gym classes at the Star City High School have been cancelled until further notice. We now bring you back to the studio.” Sean Andrews said as the main anchorman started talking again. “In other news, the Star City Festival is coming up. All you people have been waiting a year for this, but the time has finally come.” The anchorman said while Shade seemed a bit interested. “A festival? What’s the occasion?” Shade wondered while he was drinking his coffee. “That’s all we have for now, folks. Join us tonight as we get more details on the upcoming Star City Festival.” The anchorman said before the news show ended. “Well…at least that’s over. But…that thing that attacked me in the school last night…what was it?” Shade thought.

“You saw the news? So that means you know it was that Red Moon Brute I made to patrol the halls. It did make quite a mess, though. The thing I can’t believe is that my Red Moon Brute was killed by some kid.” Mr. Shadow said to a man standing nearby with lifeless red eyes. Mr. Shadow sitting in a chair in the basement, holding a knife in his left hand, carving strange letters on a table. “I’ll need this for the festival. All the souls the demons have collected will soon be put to good use. All in due time.” Mr. Shadow added as he got up and put the knife down before walking up the stairs back up to the first floor. “Time to teach the foolish students.” Mr. Shadow said before turning off the light and closing the door.