Diana-The Moon

Diana

It all started here, in the forest, but at that time it didn't seem as fatalistic a sentence as it does now. I arrived in Germany only two weeks ago, but I must say that it is nothing like New York, of which I am a native. It's all so different, so natural and so vibrant, so full of myths that I could almost say, on this side of the world, the stories that are told about the creatures that haunt the forest, are real.

"You don't believe any of that, do you, Diana? New Yorker," joked Phillip, one of the guys I befriended when I arrived. He had been watching me for a while and something made me believe that he was after me, but if that was his wish, I'm not much of a one-night-stand kind of girl.

"You ask me if I don't believe... in what?" I drew a smile on my face and pretended to look innocent. The truth is that I hadn't, actually I was a little distracted.

At that point, we were all in a town square, just a few doors away from my house, or rather, my grandmother's house, killing time while the rest of the guys in the group finished arriving.

"You don't believe in legends, in myths," Phillip remarked, laughing.

"Of course not. Can't you see it in her face? You can tell she thinks we're all superstitious." The truth is that my face is quite expressive, and I'm terrible at telling lies. The girl who had spoken, Arlene, had a point. I didn't believe what they believed.

But that statement did not seem to create as bad a feeling in those around me as Arlene intended. My new friends began to laugh as they told me stories of local folklore.

"On this side of the world the stories of myths are real," they said, and I immediately knew that the people of Bamberg were more superstitious than expected. They believed deeply in legends, especially werewolves.

"You see, they're really around here, you know, they just don't call themselves werewolves. Werewolves are a different thing. Around here we have shapeshifters," Phillip asserted as if he were friends with a couple of them himself.

"But we have to be careful. Those critters have killed a lot of people," he said as if it were a plague of mosquitoes.

"Well, it would be interesting to see," I affirmed, trying to take the heat off the matter. "I always wondered if they were as interesting as the ones in the books." My absent-minded, almost sarcastic comment didn't seem to hit the nail on the head.

He thought I was serious.

"Maybe you'll get lucky, and we'll see some," he commented.

"I'll have my camera ready," I jokingly replied. He smiled and others did, taking me as just a joke, the city girl who didn't believe in demons roaming the night.

Soon, the rest of the group arrived and we all hurried to gather our things. We had planned to spend the night in the woods, right in the middle of the full moon, an event that I'm sure the superstitious would not look upon kindly.

My grandmother, Martha, for example, had warned me that this was not a good idea. She reminded me of it when I crossed the square to get my bag to say goodbye to her.

"Be careful, Diana," she told me, and I gently kissed her forehead.

"I will," I promised her.

Martha was known in the village as a witch, a somewhat strange woman, but one whom everyone respected. My new friends could make fun of many things, but even though she was eccentric, no one seemed to want to speak badly of Martha.

I was sure she was hiding something from me. She never wanted to talk to me about my father, whom I never met, as he and my mother had only been together for three months before my father left, leaving me as the only memory of the relationship.

That bitter memory circled in my head as we crossed the border between the known world and the thick forest surrounding Bamberg. We walked for a while until we decided to set up camp and began to make preparations for the night, while some told 'friend of a friend' stories that ended with someone dying after being chased by wolves.

Finally, we all sat around the campfire when night had fallen, and as the stories went on, getting darker and darker, though none of them managed to scare me; some then went off into the thicket, seeking a little privacy, and while others were excited to tell their tales.

And so, we are all here in this moment, the night of my coronation, or perhaps, the night of my farewell. We are playing to see who could tell the most terrifying story when it happens: A howl pierces the night, like a war cry in the middle of the darkness.

"What was that?" Rodriguez asked.

"It must have been Lorenzo trying to scare us," Arlene said, although she didn't seem very convinced of her words. "Lorenzo? You idiot! Stop clowning around."

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything."Lorenzo then came out of the trees. He was zipping up, which probably meant he had gone to mark territory, or had a private moment with some girl. We never really got to know, because seconds later a figure as big as a house jumped out of the bushes, landing on Lorenzo's chest. We all watched him fall as the golden-furred creature sank its teeth into the boy's neck. He kept screaming as his blood began to gush out, staining the earth with its color and staining the snow a deep burgundy hue that kept spreading.

"Run, Diana. Run!" cried a voice in my head, but the shock clouded me. I could only see Lorenzo, whose screams pierced the night. The creature was biting at his skin as, in vain, Lorenzo tried to fight it off.

Chaos erupted through the forest. All that could be heard were screams as everyone ran in different directions.

But one by one, the creature hunted us down. It was faster than us, bigger, and of course, much stronger. I had never seen anything like it, and perhaps because of that, at that moment I didn't know what to do; the pulse had suddenly stopped in my veins, and I felt as if all around me, the world came to a standstill. As I stood up, however, I saw the beast land on Arlene, sticking its sharp, deadly teeth into her beautiful, clear-eyed face.

"Run, Diana, run!" Not knowing where I was going, I crossed the forest, my feet dizzily and violently paced. I was lost in the middle of the thicket, as seemingly invisible trees beat against my face, scratching my skin, and as cries for help rose up in the night.

While running I fell, tripping over a stone, but I didn't care. The night was cloudy because of the snow that was beginning to fall again, and so the forest before me was just a blur. I was short of breath, but I knew that if I stopped, I would die.

Still, even in my haste, I soon heard the footsteps behind me; that steady pressure of passionate rhythm threatening to overtake me. The footsteps on the damp ground were like thunder bursting against the earth. The sound inched closer and closer, and no matter how much I hurried, I couldn't put distance between those footsteps and mine.

I turned for a moment to try to see the beast, and then I stumbled. I clung to the ground, noting that I had come close to falling off a cliff that had come out of nowhere, but all the same, death was near. It had gotten me in the middle of the chase. The beast then stopped in front of me, its jaws gaping open. It was huge, bigger than a bear, and it had amber eyes, as bright as the moon. Its snout was stained with fresh blood.

Silently, I said goodbye to the world. I thought of my mother, and how sad this was going to make her. The beast advanced toward me, and I closed my eyes. There was a rumble; I felt a thump, and suddenly, nothing.

The darkness welcomed me with open arms, and I surrendered to death, ready to leave.