Moon Nora

A Fiction Short Story of the Horror genre by Me

I lean back on the clean cool sheets and close my eyes. I feel relaxed. The most relaxed and relieved as I have ever felt in my life.

“Your family is okay. You are okay. Everything is going to be alright.” I hear a voice say as I close my eyes and more relief settles in on me. I have no idea where I am but I feel soothed and weightless. I feel as though every burden I have ever carried my entire life is finally lifted up and away. I can’t even feel the weight of my body anymore.

“I do not know,” I hear my voice saying “But I like it.” my voice is flowing out of me even though I don’t feel the strain of it. I do not feel as though I am forming any thoughts but I am.

“You do not have to worry about a thing, Feanora. All is taken care of,” the other person says again.

“You know my name…” I say and I try to turn to look, but my eyes aren’t open. My arms are spread out on the soft bed and I want to see my surroundings. I don’t remember opening my eyes but the room comes into view. It looks like a fancy hotel room. The lights are low and soothing and in the warm glow, I can see the furnishings and the television set, the windows with the heavy cream colored curtains, the lavender sofa and the doorway leading to the eccentric bathroom. There is a hot tub in there. I remember soaking in its warmth the night before. Did I drink a glass of champagne too? I remember doing so. But at the same time I do not remember how I got here.

“The forest you came from, Nora,” the voice is saying to me now. “Never think of it again. Forget it. You will never go back to it. There is no need to.”

“The forest?” I say alarmed. “My….”

“No.” The other voice hushes me immediately. “Never think of it again. There will never be a need to go back there.”

I am startled and I feel tears welling in my eyes. I feel a tear slip out and slide along my temple and drop on the white sheet beneath me. I stare at the ceiling and at the fancy light fixture; a glistening chandelier with multiple candles. Each candle is a different color. No, they are not. The mind is playing tricks again. I almost object but then I don’t remember why. “Where am I now…?”

“This is the big city. You’re in a penthouse. All for yourself. There is no one here but you. It’s yours now.” the voice said cheerfully.

“Aren’t you here?” I ask.

To that there is no answer.

And I did enjoy my stay there. White wine, white bubbles in the tub, white sheets, white carpet. Everything was clean. It seemed everything was wiped clean. Just like my memory. A clean slate. I would occasionally drink champagne too, jump on the bed and dance on the balcony. I would look out at the night skyline and at all the skyscrapers lit with big city splendor. “The big city.” I would say as I stared out, wearing my white bathrobe and drinking my white wine.

“Does that mean I was from the small city? A small town? Or the country side maybe…? Which big city is this?”

The other voice would always have much to say to me. Constantly doing commentary, and sharing the weather or the dinner menu, and even talking about the neighbors but if I asked about where I was or what had happened to me, there was never a reply.

I sit on the roof of a skyscraper. It is the tallest one in the big city I think. I feel a bit chilled from the winter breeze but I am not that bothered. I wear a black lacy dress that has stringy sleeves that could be tied up. I look down at my footwear that I can not describe. “The accompanying voice told me I wore these all my life but why is it not familiar?”

I am seated with two companions I had met over the time. A male with missing skin on his face sitting on one side of me and a female with a hole in her chest and giant wings. The male is looking at me, the female, I could never tell where she was looking because her eyes were not on her face as most people’s were.

“The accompanying voice? They still have not told you their name?” he says with a disappointed snarl. “Have they even shown themselves to you?”

“Yes. It’s a woman.” I answer. “Two. Sometimes it’s three. Sometimes there is a man too but he is always typing.”

“Typing…” the zombie boy scoffs. He looks out at the moon that seems so near to us as we are up so high.

“That moon…why is it the last thing I remember?” I ask.

“Because they found us at night.” the female with the hole in her chest says. “They can only see us at night.”

“I saw myself during the day….” I say astounded.

“Not us seeing ourselves. But them. They cannot see us during the day.” she says more firmly.

“So that explains it…” the male says thoughtfully.

“Why did you get lost in thought?” I ask him curiously.

“Because now that explains it. Her explanation has solved something for me. A question I had for a long while. People don’t see me during the day.” he says as he looks down at the bustling city. It is so late in the night. The witching hour but there is still so many people walking around down there. What could they be doing? Do they not need sleep? Are they going to commit wrongdoings under the cover of darkness? It seems like that is what humans often do.

“No..we are thinking it all wrong.” I say suddenly. “We can’t see ourselves during the day. But at night we can. Like now.”

“What poppycock.” the male scoffs again. I had forgotten his name..was it Plank-O?

“People have reacted to you. You told me before.” I remind him.

“So they have….” he says as though recalling it all and then he adds. “But they have never interacted with me.”

“They are nothing but unkind to me. I am a freak of all nature.” the girl says bitterly. “My accompanying voice is not a voice at all but a man. A cruel man. And he subjects me to brutish behavior every day.”

“Well you look different from the rest of us.” The male says.

“So do you. You have skin rotting off your face and your left side of the face is all skull. And your entire foot is a skeleton!” she objects.

“Nora is the only one of us who looks normal.” he says. But then he looks at me again. “Wait. No you don’t. You have pointed ears.”

“And no one dresses like that.” The female says with disgust as she looks down at my attire.

“You have dance shoes on too!” I say.

“These are not dance shoes.” she groans. “What the hell. They tie up the leg fancily but…I do not know where they come from…”

“I wish I could wear shoes, as you said my feet are all skeleton. Clunky skeleton. Big and rotten.” the male says annoyed. “And loud. Sounds like I have high heels on.”

“I need to go back to the penthouse.” I stand up on my feet suddenly and frightened.

“And I have to get back to the ship!” the male said too as he stood up.

“And I must get back to the…lighthouse?” the female says, feeling foggy minded. “I do not know where I stay. I am not even allowed out…” as she says this, I noticed the thin glistening chain around her right ankle. She raises her arms and lifts herself off the roof of the skyscraper and gracefully flies off to wherever she is housed.

“I want wings…” I muse aloud.

“You don’t know how she got those. You wouldn’t want to be like her.” the zombie boy said. “I think out of the three of us…her story is the eeriest.”

I hear his feet clicking like high heels just as he said and then he is gone. How did he leave so fast? Did he drop down to the ground beneath us?

I drop down to the ground below. Many stories down. The building has to be about eighty floors. And I land so gracefully. Not on my feet though. I land on my side and I’m laying there on the sidewalk. Why can I do that and not die? Why do I not break into a million bits and look like crushed fruit like when I see other people jump to their deaths in that very city? I stand up and even though the city is bustling with people, no one seems to notice me.

A family of faeries used to protect the forest. They were tree spirits. Nymphs. They dwelt in the trunks of the trees. And they aided in the growth of all the nature in the forest. They gave out oxygen to all living things. One day, there was a woodcutter in the forest. He had an axe. A very big axe and the tree spirits looked on with caution. He cut down one tree. And when the tree fell and hit the ground, everything rumbled and shook. And then all was silent a moment until a spirit evaporated out of the wound, between the stump and the trunk. Here a tree spirit was left homeless. Without a tree to call home.

And she floated away somewhere aimless until she was found by them. And they told her never to think of the forest again and never to return to it. A nature spirit lost in a big city without a tree. Would she eventually fade away and die? Or become something else?

I recall all of this. And then I run into the forest and I feel a very familiar sense of familiarity. Why do I know this place? It’s day time and the sun is shining radiantly making everything seem greener and vibrant. I feel as though I am home. Oh this must be that forest? The one the accompanying voice told me not to think about. And I hadn’t thought about it. In fact, I had forgotten about it. But now all things were coming together and making sense. But I still had so many questions. Why was I not supposed to come back here? What was keeping me away? This was my home, wasn’t it? I run into a clearing and gaze around at the beautiful scenery. And then I run and look at some flowers. They are all so colorful and serene.

I look at the fallen tree that is near me. It’s been cut down with an axe, I knew that much. And I stare at the space between the stump and the trunk. “That’s how I came into the world, wasn’t it?” I ask aloud.

The accompanying voice is there. I know it. No matter how many times they tried to be quiet and pretend they weren’t there, I knew they were. And I would make them answer me now. “Wasn’t it?”

“Oh, you dear thing. You were never supposed to know.” the voice is colder now than ever before.

I feel chills run down my spine and a wave of dread. Who would do such a thing? “Who are you? Show yourself!” I demand.

But the accompanying voice ignored me and continued to berate me. “Who was it that told you? The corpse boy? Or the winged freak? They were never supposed to figure anything out either. Not about you, not about themselves. They were supposed to wander, aimless and misplaced. And mistreated.” as they talked their voices changed to several different tones. Sometimes male sometimes female. I had no idea who was talking to me or how many of them there were.

“Just answer me! Show yourself, you coward!” I shout.

“You answer ME! Who told you!?” They shout at me.

I looked up at the sky and at the tops of the trees. And then to the grass beneath me. I couldn’t tell where the mystery voice was broadcasting from. I couldn’t tell how they were watching me. From what angle? And how did they know so much about the three of us? What did they do to us?

“No one told me. I figured it out.” I say under my breath. I said it too low that only I could hear. But the voice still replied to me.

“No one told you!? We don’t believe that!”

They can hear me from anywhere. No matter how low I speak. How? It’s like I had an invisible microphone attached to me.

“You used to protect this forest, but now you cannot. You can’t protect anything from me.” the voice is taunting me. I do not let them get to me.

“But first tell me who and what you are! Are you a woman? Or a man?” I demand in a voice lower than a whisper.

“There is more than one of us.” The voice answers. “We are a group. And a team. We hear everything you say. Even the things you don’t say. We see your every move. We know your every fear. But for some reason you have defied us.” the voice changing from male to female again and then talking with many voices when they said that last sentence. It sounds like there could be forty of them. Or a hundred. I couldn’t really tell. At first sounding human but now sounding alien.

“How do you know that? Answer me clearly. What are you?” I asked as I looked all around me.

“We can’t tell you that.” this time their voice sounds artificial like a robotic sound through a static speaker.

“Where are you!? How do you see me?” I ask this time and I look at the sky and the tree tops again. I scan the tree branches.

There is an eerie monotone laugh. And then the voice said. “Oh silly silly, Nora. We are not out there. But in here.”

In here…? I think in bewilderment.

A breeze picks up blowing a few leaves around and the sky is slightly darkening. Is it time for the sun to set? I am not sure. I lost all track of time when I woke up in that hotel room.

“What do you mean in here?” I ask as I tremble.

And then the voice laughs again with many monotone and echoey voices and I feel the echoes vibrate from deep inside my head. My temple throbs and I feel the sound waves moving throughout my brain and body. I feel thousands of tiny little hands pounding on the inside of my forehead and temples. As though they were trapped in there. “In here?” I say aloud. I feel them laughing and screaming louder and louder with each voice a different tone and the sound waves reverberating giving me a different sensation for each one. And I look up to the sky and scream with all my might.

Would you like to listen to an audio version of my story with my narration? Check out the video on my channel:

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