The Red Moon Rises

Why is this shit the only evidence of my writing that anybody ever sees

- Part 1: "The Red Moon Rises"

It had been a slow day in his kingdom, as Rider walked down the street after stopping to get some food to take home with him, but something wasn't quite right. The birds were chirping, kids playing, and the sun, almost setting, was shining over it all. Casting the last of the late afternoon warmth into every crack and crevice of the kingdom. Everywhere except... one darkened alley to his right. He slowed to a stop, the glint of something shiny amongst the shadows catching his eye. He turned toward the alley, curiosity getting the better of him as he squinted his eyes and leaned forward slightly to try and see what was there. He gripped a still warm WcRonald's bag in his hand, ready to hit a bitch in the face with an Egg WcMuffin and some fries if he had to, when he saw it. Or them, rather. God, how many were there? 10, 20? he couldn't tell, but they scurried around like cockroaches on the walls and junk in the alleyway searching for any morsel of food they could possibly find among the garbage and dirt... and then they saw him too. Their glowing hungry eyes all staring him down as they stilled in an instant. He could feel it down to his bones, his breath stopping in his chest against the pounding of his own heart, the way they looked at him sent chills all throughout his body and had him frozen in place staring back at them. At some point he realized that the sky had turned red, and not a sunset kind of red. It was a deep, dark, unsettling shade. He didn't need to look where it came from, didn't want to out of fear that those... those things would pounce on him the second he looked away, he couldn't even blink, but he knew... he knew it was the moon. He had been standing there for hours. - Rider threw open a door, panic coursing through his veins as he rushed into the room, Marshall following close behind him with a concerned but much less panicked look on his face. His shirt was ripped and crumpled, and his tie looked about two seconds away from falling off. Shreds of grease stained brown paper bag and stray bits of egg were all that was left of his meal, splattered and stuck on his shirt and pants. "What the hell happened back there?" Marshall questioned while eyeing Rider's wrecked attire as he paced back and fourth in the darkened room, red moonlight spilling from the only window.

"There were so many... so many..." he sounded out of breath as he said it. "Yeah I know, haven't you noticed them in the streets before? Or like, ever?" Rider stopped pacing, his gaze fixed on the floor, "before?" he lifted his head to look Marshall in the eyes. "Before???" Marshall shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah man, before. Little demons have been stealing my sandwitches for months! And not just me, everyone in the kingdom." "Wait," Rider's panic and tension melted away all of a sudden, "months? They've been stealing your sandwitches for months... Marshall why the hell have you been here for months, don't you have your own kingdom to look after?" "Well, uh, yeah..." his eyes darted to the side nervously, they don't exactly like me right now. You know, the whole going to war just to fall in love with the enemy thing. Guess they didn't appreciate it. "But have you not been to that one food place down the street? They make a mean sandwitch. I mean you probably have, it's right next to your place, in your kingdom... but uh, but still." Afrer a moment of silence and raised eyebrows Rider collapsed into a chair with an over exaggerated sigh, dragging a hand through his already messy and ruffled hair. "Okay, okay. I have to leave, Marshall." His eyes widened slightly. "Leave? What do you mean leave?" "Leave the kingdom," he clarified. "But I thought... I thought we were fighting over that girl (god who even remembers who she was) only to realize we had fallen madly in love with one another in the midst of a battlefield surrounded by our dead soldiers and the sprawling sunset?" "I'm sorry, the war was scrapped. I'm a hippie now. And besides, I have to flee my kingdom, the red moon has risen and my children are hunting me. I cannot stay." Rider gripped the chair below him as he leaned forward. "I... see," there was a hint of disappointment in Marshall's voice, but he didn't let it show much more than that, "I guess that whole delusion went with my blue hair then as well?" He chuckled, if a bit sadly. Rider eyed his blonde locks suspiciously as he stood from the chair. "Yes... now if you'll excuse me," he turned toward a dresser and grabbed out a change of clothes, set a pair of pink glasses on top, then walked towards the door with them in hand.

He stopped beside Marshall one last time before leaving though. "Keep an eye on the kingdom for me while I'm gone, would you? (Since you've already been fuckin' living here pretty much, damn.) And..." his voice lowered just a little bit, features softening as he looked back at where Marshall stood in his peripheral, "that thing between us? It may be cast away into the depths now, because even God himself is disgusted by our mere association, but I just want you to know... that it'll always be there. What we had together." And with that, he left the room. Marshall did not stop him. For in reality, they had nothing together... so that was kind of a weird statement. - Rider left his kingdom that night under cover of dark, although that was probably (definitely) a terrible idea because it seemed his children infested the streets even more so in the night, and worse, they hardly seemed hindered by it. The red glow of the moon and smell of fry crumbs on his collar was enough to have them biting at his heels as he scrambled to try and get away from them all. One grabbed his ankle, clamping down with its needle teeth and making him yell out in surprise, sending a quick boot with his other foot to it's poor little face. It went flying back and disappeared into the swarm, all hungry mouths and sharp teeth biting up through the air towards him as he climbed a wall to get away from them. Though Rider still cringed at the sight of literally kicking one of his kids square in the face, despite it all. "Your mother would not be pleased with me, lord have mercy." Then it hit him, he hadn't seen her in weeks... (still can't remember who she is, must not be very important, idk) but more importantly, something solid hit him. A half eaten sandwitch slapping him in the face knocked him from his thoughts. "Goddamn it, was that one of Marshall's? What is wrong with all of you." He wiped some sauce from his cheek with the sleeve of his shirt as he continued to climb, grumbling to himself the whole way. But really, where had Rose gone? And why hadn't his stupid idiot self noticed his own damn wife missing? Husband of the year, am I right? Lmao. He jumped down on the other side of the wall, they hadn't managed to climb it yet so he had some time to get away from them, he hoped anyway. He glanced around, a sprawling moonlit field stretched into the distance. If he wanted to lose them, he'd have to get moving. Like right

now, he could hear them clawing their way up the wall from where he stood. Scurrying and knawing like hungry rats in the night. Surely they couldn't eat through the castle wall, right? So he ran through the field, ran as fast as his long ass legs could carry him. (Seriously, why is this man over 7 feet tall?) And as he gripped the spare clothes in his arms he realized that they could probably still smell the food on the ones he was wearing, and began tearing his shirt and tie off, still running, in an attempt to keep them from sniffing him out. He left his torn clothes in the field, and made for the treeline. Just as he ducked (heh, quack) into the cover of the trees he heard a terrible sound. (Quack?) The wall crumbled, large chunks hitting the ground with a thud followed by screeching and howling that echoed into the distance. They broke through the wall, some desperately trying to claw their way out of where they were buried when it collapsed, and the rest flooding out into the field. Others sat perched at the top of the wall either side of where it caved in. (So not quack...) He pulled in lung fulls of air trying to catch his breath as he watched them, hands on his bare knees. He got rid of his clothes but they still seemed to be on his trail, as they poured out from the castle walls and barreled through the field straight towards him. And that's when he realized, looking down. Blood trickled from a bite mark on his ankle. They could smell him. "No... shit, no–" He turned and ran deeper into the woods, he had to lose them somehow. Not unless he wanted to be devoured that night, and Mother Nature was a sick and twisted gal, so she'd make sure of it if he made so much as one wrong move. He knew that. She also liked hitting him the face with branches and leaves :) The forest was so dark as he ran, he could hardly see anything. Running barefoot through the woods certainly wasn't his favorite activity, as rocks and twigs jabbed him in the feet, and shit whacked him in the face. He hit a patch of mud in the dark and his legs went flying out from underneath him before he could even think, and before he knew it he was tumbling down a slick muddy hillside. He hit the bottom hard, agaist a large rock, and laid there for a while trying to collect his thoughts before he dared to try and move. If he could move, he didn't know at that point. He laid there in the dark and cold for so long he didn't even know how much time had passed, he was tired, his eyes grew heavy and the thought of sleep was so tempting. He wondered briefly if his first 10 kids were among all the others, if they would eat him alive given the chance too. Eventually the deafening silence of the forest took him, and he drifted off, covered in mud and leaves.

Something lurked nearby, Rider awoke to the sound of leaves and twigs crunching, and loud sniffing next to his head. Warm breath in his ear. The realization washed over him like a bucket of ice water on a hot summer day, his eyes going wide and staring into the pitch-black nothingness of the forest as he tensed and listened. The patter of small footsteps passed him, and then another. He didn't dare move. Whatever was sniffing near him left to follow the others, and soon after there were so many footsteps they all started to meld together into a horrible cacophony of scurrying through the leaves. If a stampede of hundreds of large rats ever happened, this is definitely what it sounded like. They ran around him, over him, above him... those fuckers climbed the trees like they were nothing. Nowhere was safe. Except the mud he was buried and covered in apparently. It covered his scent, he realized.