Morning all. Just running a little slow today. I simply couldn’t resist hitting that snooze button one too many times. The cloudy and rainy day may suit Halloween, but the thick cloud cover made convincing myself it was daylight and time to get up rather difficult. Still the day has arrived, so lets jump into it. Get those timer’s set and let’s see what comes from this week’s prompt. Read, set, Write!
That was a surprise. I thought I would end up with something werewolf themed for certain. I rather like this though.
Monday, October 31st: The moon was full.
The moon was full. Its round dappled form hung in the sky. It was an off white color, yellowed like old bone. Yet the light it cast seemed as bright as the the sun out here so far away from the man made lights in the city. Sean sat by the cooled fire. It was doused ages ago as the others made their sleepy way to the tents, filled with roasted marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.
The blaze was put out with sand rather than water and at least three people checked to make certain no ember remained. Sean hadn’t been one of them. What he knew about fire involved lighting a candle with a match, and even that was only done at his girlfriend’s behest. Sarah liked candles.
‘Ex-girlfriend,’ he reminded himself.
It was still hard to remember that. The split was so fresh, so unexpected. Despite the cool night and lack of fire,. Sean felt heat creep to his cheeks. He still felt the sting of embarrassment when he thought of it. He had been so blind. He hadn’t seen any problems on the horizon.
As had been his habit since Sarah left, he replayed the last few months, looking for what happened. What caused the break. What he had done wrong. As usual he could find nothing he could point to. No behavior he could correct so that next time, this wouldn’t happen. That next time would be with someone other than Sarah had already been established. She had already moved on. There would be no patching things up.
This time, he had not been in his bed when the thoughts took him, but rather in the sleeping bag he borrowed from his brother’s roommate. He had been asked on this camping trip and thought it would be a good way of getting himself out of the same mental rut. Camping was a completely new experience for him. It was not a past time his family ever indulged in and not something he expected to ever try. It was probably that more than anything else that made him think this would change …something. He aked his brother if he had any gear. While Mike had no more experience in the woods than he did, it turned out his roommate spent his childhood camping and still had the gear in the garage.
The daylight was fine. The newness of everything, the strangeness of beong so far from what he knew was distracting. But then night fall came. When the fire was out and everyone stumbled towards their tents, Sean was once again left with his thoughts. Those, it seemed he packed as well as the extra socks he was told might come in handy. When the tent became too full of his unanswered wuestions, he left it to air out, hoping that sitting a little more in the dark would make him tired enough to simply go back to sleep when he returned to the tent.
Instead, he found the moon, bright overhead and the world a different landscape than the one he left. Despite the brightness it was a world without color. The trees, the grass, the lake down the hill. It was all done in black and white with subtle shades of gray. It was not quite real, like watching an old movie.
Ten til Midnight 