The Mysterious Luna

The dark forest

Jessica POV

Six Month Later

I’ve been working at the coffee shop for six months now, it’s a great little place to work and I’ve become really good friends with, Brad the owner. I actually, introduced him to Samantha, and now, the three of us hang out all the time.

Brad, showed interest in pursuing a relationship with me at first, but I shut that down quickly. I need friends in my life right now, more than I need a romantic relationship. Plus, he’s my boss, and I wouldn’t want anything to get weird between us. He understood and he’s been a great friend since.

After I got the job, Samantha asked me, if I wanted to keep living with her and be her, official roommate. I said yes, and now, we split the rent it’s been great. She’s so easygoing and a lot of fun.

She has a little wild streak in her when he has a few too many glasses of wine, but I don’t mind, it’s entertaining. She always jokes, that I must have been a heavy drinker before I went into the coma because it’s an impossible task to get me drunk.

As for my memory, I still don’t have any. It’s ok though, my new life has been amazing and I wouldn’t want to lose what I have built for myself. My friends are incredible and I love my job at the coffee shop.

I was working the late afternoon shift today. Brad, had asked me to close up the coffee tonight because he needed to be somewhere else. I didn’t mind though, it’s simple enough. The coffee shop closes at 10:00pm and the evening shift is usually quiet.

It was 9:30pm and there were only two tables in the shop that were occupied. I was cleaning some dishes in the back. when I heard the front doorbell ring, indicating that someone had either entered or left the shop.

I made my way to the cash register, from the back and spotted a group of four men that had just walked in.

They were all in their mid 20’s, big and muscular, and they had a bit of a dangerous edge to them, which made me slightly nervous. They seemed like an odd group, to be coming in for coffee at 9:30pm on a Friday evening, but I didn’t think much of it.

“What can I get you guys?” I asked, offering them a genuine smile.

They were all looking at me with the same look, it was really serious and it was like they were trying to read my mind. No one answered and their eyes remained locked on me, it was making me uncomfortable.

One of them noticed my discomfort and spoke for the group, the rest just kept staring.

“Hey, what’s your name?” The one that had short brown hair, asked with a smile.

“Jess.” I replied, returning his smile. The other three stopped staring at me so intensely, but i still felt awkward around them.

“Jess, is that short for something.” He asked.

“Yes, Jessica.” I replied lowly, feeling uncomfortable with his question.

“You from around here, Jessica?” He asked, looking at me curiously.

“No, I just moved into town, a few weeks ago.” I lied, not feeling like I wanted to tell him anything more about my personal life. I could tell he noticed how uncomfortable I was, so he got back to why they came in.

“Jess, what do you recommend?” The same brown-haired guy asked, giving me a flirty smile.

“Umm well, if your looking for something different than a standard coffee, maybe a Latte, might interest you?” I suggested.

“Sure, how about we get four lattes.” The brown hair man said.

“Coming right up.” I replied sweetly, as I turned to prepare the lattes.

Once I was done, I brought the lattes to the front counter and placed them down in front of the men. The three others still hadn’t spoken and kept glancing at me with curious looks.

“That will be 14.50$.” I said, to the brown hair guy.

“Here.” He said as he handed me a 20.00$ bill. I took the money and started to dig in the register for change.

“Keep the change, Jess.” The man said while giving one last smile before he and his friends left the coffee shop.

The interaction left a bad feeling in my gut, but I brushed it off. They didn’t say or do anything suspicious, so I have no reason to feel worried about them. Plus, they were gone.

I continued cleaning up until closing time came around.

The last customer had left ten minutes earlier, so I was alone.

I locked up the coffee shop and started to walk towards my apartment, It was dark outside.

It was a cold night in January. I was wearing a thick winter jacket and gloves to keep warm.

A chill went down my spine when a gust of wind blew by me and I felt the cold crisp air brush against my exposed neck.

I had been walking for five minutes when I got this feeling that I was being watched. I looked all around but found the streets to be empty.

I entered a small dirt trail that cuts through a wooded area. It’s the quickest way to get home, if I had stayed on the road, it would have added an extra twenty minutes to my walk.

It was dark along the trail, but I always carried mace with me, in case anyone tried anything. Plus, Samantha and I, had been taking self defense classes and I got some good moves up my sleeves.

I heard a twig snap behind me and I spun around quickly to see if someone was there.

I didn’t see anyone, but I still had this feeling of being watched. I turned back around and started walking faster while holding the mace in my hand. My heart rate was beating fast and I started breathing heavily.

I heard a growl from behind me and turned around to see a brown dog. No, it was too big to be a dog, it was even bigger than a wolf. I don’t know what it was, but something about the way it was looking at me, scared me.

He started stalking slowly toward me, like the predator it was and I walked backward, away from him matching his pace.

All of a sudden, two more of those massive wolves, came out of the trees and started stalking me, from where I had just come from.

I looked over my shoulder, toward where I was heading and spotted another wolf blocking my path.

I didn’t know what to do, I was sure I was going to be eaten, they were looking at me like I was going to be their next meal.

They were approximately fifty feet away, in either direction and I decided to run, I sprinted through the trees, leaving the trail behind me, and headed deeper into the forest. I didn’t look back, I ran as fast as I could.

I heard them gaining on me, but I didn’t slow down.

I could sense one getting close behind me and I decided to spray the mace over my shoulder. Thinking, maybe it would slow him down a bit, but it didn’t do anything, I still felt him right behind me.

I don’t know how long I had been running when all of a sudden more wolves came out from the trees In front of me and I halted in my tracks.

I started glancing between the wolves behind me and the ones in front of me. s**t. I was trapped, completely surrounded, with nowhere to go.

The wolves that were in front, charged toward me, I closed my eyes and braced for impact, but it never came. I heard, what sounded like a vicious dog fight behind me and opened my eyes, that’s when I saw both groups of wolves, were fighting each other and no one was paying any attention to me anymore.

I decided to take the opportunity and run.

I ran deeper into the forest and looked back every so often, to my relief none of the wolves were following me. I was out of breath I don’t know how long I had been running, but it felt like forever.

I stopped by a large tree to catch my breath.

It had only been five minutes since I stopped, I was leaning against the tree when I heard shuffling in the bushes behind me.

I froze in fear when I saw wolves coming out of the trees from multiple directions, they were surrounding me.

I looked around frantically, but they were everywhere.

I found a small opening and decide to try and run for it.

I didn’t make it far, when all of a sudden, I was tackled to the ground by one of the beasts.

He bit down on my shoulder, but I only felt pressure, thanks to my thick winter jacket, he didn’t break skin.

I managed to jam my finger in his eye and I heard a whimper as he released his hold on me, I took the opportunity to kick him off and continued running, for dear life.

A short distance later, another wolf leaped at me and I ducked in time, for him to miss me completely and fall to the ground in front.

I changed direction and continued running when another wolf knocked me over.

I fell to the ground and he stood over me, growling inches from my face. I froze in fear at his actions. I could feel his warm breath fanning my cheek and I could see how sharp his canine teeth were, as he bared them to me, in a threatening way.

This is it, I thought, he’s going to eat me.

I decided I didn’t want to die like this and adrenaline pumped through my body, I started punching the wolf in the muzzle, with every last bit of strength I had.

That’s when I felt his canines sink into my shoulder and this time, they went through my jacket and penetrated my skin. I felt warm blood running down my chest, from where his teeth were piercing my skin. The pain was almost unbearable and a whimper left my lips.

I kept fighting until my vision got blurry and I started seeing darkness.

The weird thing was, that the wolf didn’t move, he was pinning me to the ground, he could have easily killed me, but he didn’t, he waited till I was losing consciousness.

It didn’t take long before darkness consumed me and I fell limp and unconscious to the ground.