Returning Moon by J. R. Rice

Author:J. R. Rice [Rice, J. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silver Canyon Press
Published: 2017-08-29T22:00:00+00:00

BRYCE SAT BENEATH THE OLD MAPLE TREE out past the barn, pondering their current situation.

Nineteen years is a lifetime, he thought.

Over the years, Bryce’s memories of the gruesome events of 1991 had slowly faded into the background, buried away, deep within the shifting sands of time.

There were times, when he’d almost been able to convince himself that the events had never occurred; that the memories were nothing more than puerile apparitions—the imagined product of a lucid nightmare.

Leaning against the trunk of the ancient tree, the horrors of Bryce’s childhood returned to him. They played across his mind in vivid detail, filling him with a sense of hopelessness and despair. More people were going to die—and nothing he could do would stop the horrors that were coming.

“You okay, Bryce?” It was Jackson. He crossed the yard and took a seat beside his cousin on the leaf-covered ground.

Bryce nodded. “I was just . . . thinking.”

“Yeah, I thought I smelled plastic burning,” Jackson joked. Bryce elbowed him in the ribs. “Ow.”

“Smart-ass.”

“Where’s everybody at?” Jackson asked.

“Annie and Iggy went to the grocery store. Grandma and Grandpa are taking a nap.”

Jackson nodded. After a moment, he said, “I found out something from Mariana last night.”

“What’s that?” Bryce asked.

“I found out what she was trying to tell me the morning we left for The Refuge.”

Bryce looked at him with a nervous expectancy.

“She said that she wanted to tell me to take my rifle—the one with the big scope.”

Bryce’s eyes got big. He remembered what Jackson had said while the beast was attacking Dan Foster: “Why didn’t I bring my rifle? I could take that hairy fucker’s head off from here with my .300 Win Mag.”

“I should have listened to her,” Jackson said sorrowfully. “Maybe I could have saved Foster.”

“We can’t know that,” Bryce said consolingly. “Honestly, at that range, I doubt a bullet from your rifle would’ve done much more than piss it off. You know these creatures are built like tanks.”

Jackson nodded. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said. “But I’ll tell you what, from now on, I’m listening to Mariana.”

“Probably not a bad idea,” Bryce agreed. Then he asked, “Have you heard anything else from Culley?”

“No,” Jackson said. “I haven’t spoken with him since last week.”

“I’m sure we’ll be hearing from him soon,” Bryce stated darkly. “More people are going to die—a lot more.”

“Yeah—I know,” Jackson said. He sighed heavily.

A doleful silence stretched between them, then Bryce said, “You know, it makes perfect sense that there’s a pack of these creatures. I mean, it’s not like they just magically spring up out of the ground”—He met Jackson’s eyes—“They’re breeding. They’ve always been there—we just didn’t know it.”

Jackson wore a look of dire revelation on his face.

“They hunt alone—like tigers,” Bryce went on. “In that way, they’re less likely to be seen. Whenever one makes a kill, he brings it back to the pack. That’s why bodies are rarely found—people just go missing.”

“Jesus,” Jackson said.

“What I can’t figure,” Bryce continued, “is why so many of them showed up at your cabin.

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