Phases of the Moon

Disappearing Moon

Unknown Male POV:

I feel the knife as it enters my side. I stumble back bewildered; shock edged on my face. I stare at the person who just stabbed me, their betrayal washing over me, entering every pore. My heart and something else, something deeper, breaking in that moment. My wolf howling loudly in my head, heartbroken and bewildered, also not believing what he is seeing and unable to act.

I feel another stab in my back but not as deep as the wound on my side, but bad enough so that I drop to my knees, I stare at the bloody snow underneath me, not believing my eyes, I just can’t fathom what’s happening to me. I manage to get up and I see the silver knife being pulled out of my side by a small hand, a hand that used to love me. The same knife slashes again towards me. I stare at the betrayers, as their knives pierce my skin over and over. I step back trying to regain my balance, but I’m already too weak.

I stumble backward and drop over the edge. As my body hits the icy cold river, I feel my body start to sink. I struggle trying to right myself, but the pain is excruciating. I drop down to the bottom of the river and I am honestly surprised that I am still alive. I give a weak kick to push myself up. I struggle for breath, and I start to panic. I see the surface and try to reach it, but I am badly hurt. As I reach the surface, I manage to turn on my back, I let the river take me, floating further down to who knows where. My betrayers rush to the edge of the river and watch me float down, their bloody knives still in their hands

I stare at the water around me, needing to focus on something and I watch as the blood leaves my body and stain the water around me. Every breath is a struggle and a fight to stay conscious. I can feel my self-slipping into darkness.

I take a deep breath and I’m then hit with a coughing fit. I wipe at my mouth and I see that there is blood on my hand, I instinctively know that my lungs are damaged. I struggle to keep myself afloat and conscious. Death’s icy grip grabs hold of me, he was coming for me, and I’m not sure if I could fight him off, or even if I wanted to. My wolf takes over and I can feel myself transform into Grey. I knew this was the only way I would be able to survive so I let it happen.

As I float downstream, my mind slips back to her, and I could feel the ache in my tortured broken heart. I try to inhale deeply and then the darkness takes me; I was slipping into oblivion, to my death. My last clear thought was one of her, and what she did to me. The darkness finally takes me, accompanied by despair.

Joe’s POV:

I had been here for more that three week now, the snow had started falling heavily after about a week of me being here. It now fell everyday and I knew it would keep going this way until almost spring.

I take a seat on my handcrafted wooden chair outside on the porch, staring up at the night sky. There was no moon tonight and it was freezing cold, the snow was getting deeper and falling harder by the second. The only light visible was that from my cabin and a small light which lighted some of the area around the cabin and part of the river.

I loved this time of day, it felt so peaceful. I soaked in everything around me, the feeling of nostalgia washing over me. I felt at peace here, this was my happy place, the time I spent here with my grandfather was some of the happiest of my life. I immediately feel guilty thinking of him, I should have been here with him before he died.

I unconsciously shake my head and start reminiscing. I came to the cabin to clear my mind. No, I was lying to myself, I was hiding here, I was just so tired and alone. The divorce had taken its toll and I was broken, a broken woman, no fight, trust, or anything left in me. I sat counting out the sleeping pills. This was the only way I could sleep lately, and I only had 6 left. I wasn’t proud of myself but this was the only way that I could sleep and forget, the forgetting part was more important.

I just wanted to disappear, go to sleep, and never wake up. Mike had broken me, and I was not willing to face anything in the real world anymore, I just couldn’t go on. So, I ran away, I ran here. But this time my grandfather wasn’t here, I was alone.

I thought back on the last 10 years and I could feel my eyes moistening. My soul was broken. At 21 I had given my life to Mike. I had married a soul sucking bastard, and now 10 years later I regretted every minute spent with him, he had destroyed my life with his constant abuse, though it wasn’t physical all the time, the emotional abuse had destroyed me and made me feel useless. At least I always had my grandfather but now even he was gone.

I looked at the flowing river in front of me, wishing that I could just float downstream with the water.

I came to my grandfather’s cabin; I knew I would be alone here. When my grandfather died 6 months earlier, he had left his cabin to me and Mike never wanted to come here, strangely my grandfather dying was also the catalyst to make me finally leave Mike. But the last couple of months had been hell, his constant torment and harassment finally had me fleeing to the cabin, and at this moment I was so down and honestly felt like I had nothing left to live for.

I sat on the porch drinking my last cup of coffee for the night. Thinking about the time I had spent here with my grandpa. When my parents died, he immediately took me in, and never made me feel unwanted. But then I met Mike. Oh, he was quite the charmer when we first started dating, and I thought I was in love with him, but looking back, I knew it was never love, I just wanted love and my own family.

I sat staring out at the water, the water always seemed to relax me. I saw something float out of the river. Something grey. It was big and for a moment I put the self-pitying on the back burner interested at what lay before me.

I got up and slowly started towards the shape in the river. The shape changed somehow as I came closer, or maybe it came more into focus.

Shock filled my body as I realised what it was, it was a body, a very naked body and he was most definitely a man, he was huge over 6 foot 6 and extremely muscular. I ran closer, I had to act fast, or the river was going to take him again.

I reached for him and started pulling on his arm, he was heavy, really heavy. I went closer. I had to enter the river to accomplish this. The water was freezing as it reached up to my thighs. I grabbed him around the waist, hauling him to safety. When I reached the riverbank, I had to struggled through the mud, I fell a couple of times slipping on the edge.

I finally managed to drag him completely out of the river. I gave one last powerful tug and then proceeded to fall flat on my ass with him halfway on top of me.

I sat there looking around for some kind of help, but not finding any. This wasn’t going to work “Jesus Joe think”

I gathered my thoughts. “Okay Joe, first check if his alive”. I felt for a pulse but there was nothing, I turned him on his back and started CPR. Relief flooded me as I heard him take his first breath, he coughed up some water and I turned his head to the side. I needed to get him inside and fast, at least he was alive, for now.

I looked around for something to help me get him into my cabin.

I had to move him. I grabbed him around the waist once me. This time he groaned and I pulled my hand away quickly. He reached for me and whispered a name it sounded like “Celi or something”. I slapped his hand away and looked for a way to get him up to the cabin.

I basically had nothing to help me. “Okay, so this is going to be difficult”

I rolled him onto my back which in itself was a huge struggle. If someone saw me know this would look ridiculous and very animalistic. I started crawling on all fours with him on top of me. My pace was slow but at least I was getting there. My arms and legs were starting to burn and I collapsed with his weight on me, precious minutes ticked by, with me laying in the snow with a big lump on top of me. My hands were freezing and the cold and wet started to seep through my clothes. I took a deep breath, inhaled deeply and pushed myself up. I started the slow trek to porch.

I finally reached the steps of the cabin and slowly moved to the top, this was even more painful as I had to go up steps, at least there was only four. My muscles ached but I pushed through the pain, determined to get him up and into my cabin. When I finally moved through my open door, I felt relieved. I eyed the coach sceptically and decided to drop him in front of the fireplace on top of the rug.

“Your far too big for me to attempt lifting you, fellow” I spoke to him as if he was conscious, I felt a little stupid when I caught my reflection in the mirror. “What an i***t Joe, another man bringing you to your knees”

As I dropped his body in front of the fire, I could see he was in bad shape. I decided to just get on with it, and I started searching his body for any injuries. I noticed a couple of wounds, and there was something stuck in his side, just below his ribcage. He was definitely in a fight and by the looks of him, he had lost. I took a closer look at the wound. There was more than one wound but this one was bleeding profusely, and currently on my rug. A brief thought of what type of man did I just bring into my house, crossed my mind, but I just couldn’t leave someone in trouble, I wasn’t built like that, I instinctively had to help.

I got some water and disinfectant. I had no means of contacting anyone, because we were basically snowed in and I had no telephone or radio, my grandfather loved the isolation. So I was going to have to do this myself.

I took a closer look at the wound, it looked like someone broke off a knife in him. I took some tweezers and started to slowly remove the knife, it was really stuck in there, but I didn’t have anything to make this job easier, I wasn’t prepared for this at all.

I just hoped I wasn’t causing him more damage by removing it, who knows what other internal damage this guy had.

The knife started to slowly release and came out very slowly. I had placed a towel under him before I started, but the blood was now streaming from him, soaking the towel and rug underneath him.