Strange occurances for a new comer in an old community. Is it just her imagination or is she psychic?

The Fullest Moon

 

DAY ONE

It had been the first night of the fullest moon. The brightness of the moon kept Jenny in a semi-sleep state, leaving a secret door open into the deepest recesses of her mind. Quietness reigned throughout the small community; it was too quiet for the rambunctiuos atmosphere at this time of year. No activity was heard as on the previous nights; with the neighbors’ television loudly blaring over either the other neighbor’s snoring...or the dogs fighting and chasing after the queen of cats.

Only the ticking of the clock was faintly being registered in Jenny’s mind. Suddenly Jenny sat upright in her bed. Her forehead became damp and her heart began to pound in an irregular beat. Was that screaming she heard?  Straining to hear in approximately what direction it was coming from, Jenny cocked her head towards the open window. The woman screamed again, but this time closer. Jenny struggled with her blankets, trying to untangle her feet and crawl out of the swallowing water bed. Finally free she went to the window that faced the front of the house. Jenny could hear someone running towards her house, but because of the limited view she could not see anyone.

Now the woman was screaming shrill guttural sounds. Pounding on someone’s door Jenny could hear her plead..."Help me! Please! Someone help me! He is going to kill me!"  Not a soul let her in… door after door was pounded on...the only sound was that of a single individual running down the caudal sac. As if by magic silence filled the air once again.

Jenny could not see much out of her tiny window that faced the front of the house. All she was able to see was the roof of the garage in front of her and to the right. A street and homes to her left were visible...all was quiet, all was dark. Jen determined that the excitement was over decided to go back to bed. Entering the sleep state only to be woken by the screaming shrills again.

She wanted to go out side to help the poor lady, but she was alone in the house with two children and dared not. The screaming became louder and Jenny knew the lady was just across the street from her by the tone. Suddenly the screaming stopped...in mid-scream! Silence reigned. Hairs on the back of her neck began to rise. Now the dogs were howling in the back yard. Surely they had seen the poor woman. Her body trembled as a chill trickled down her spin. Jenny climbed back into her bed and snuggled tightly around her blankets and covered her head...sleep finally won.

 

The next day not a neighbor had mentioned anything about a screaming woman. Jenny knew her children had been sound asleep and they would not have remembered much of anything anyway. So as not to make herself look like a lunatic she just shoved the incident in the back of her mind. She was new to the neighborhood and really hadn’t gotten to know anyone in the past six weeks that she had been there.

 

Around one o’clock in the afternoon the neighbor lady, whose house resided on her right, came over to ask if her two children could play with Jenny’s children. Jenny was delighted that someone was being neighborly. After stating that the children could play Jenny asked her neighbor, "Did you hear anything strange last night?" Her neighbor inquired that she did not hear anything..."Why she asked?"  

Jenny replied, "You mean you slept through that poor lady screaming loudly and running down the street? "

"Oh! You mean Sally from the top of the street? She was always being beaten by her husband and then she would run down the street pounding on everyone’s door."

"You said was? What do you mean by that?’ Jenny asked

"Well, Sally was murdered by her husband three months ago. He pushed her down the basement steps and she broke her neck." replied the neighbor.

Jenny began to feel faint and after fanning herself asked, "Do you still hear her?"

The neighbor coughed and turned a bit pale..."Yes, but I don’t tell anyone!"



 


DAY TWO

Four AM was a strange time to hear fire sirens, and ambulances. This time Jenny walked down her second story stairway to look out of her picture window…of course she couldn’t see a thing!  The dogs were really howling up a storm tonight. A lot of activity was going on outside. The wind was blowing hard, causing the autumn leaves to flutter to the ground in a twirling motion only to be pushed away by a different gush of wind.

Strangeness! Jenny listened beyond the sirens and felt as if she could hear a tiny child’s scream...suddenly heaviness filled her chest cavity and a presence of a great loss lingered. "Oh these strange feelings I get at times...you would think I was a witch or something!

In the morning Jenny went next door to ask her one and only talking neighbor what she heard. The neighbor looked horrible with her uncombed bleached blonde short hair and her face paler than the day before. Jenny apologized for waking her up..."Oh, no problem! Children don’t let you sleep. I was up very early this morning. My husband got called out; he’s the undertaker and owner of Morrison’s Funeral Home here in town." Jenny really never made the connection since she was still relatively new around this small community. Being inquisitive she decided to ask, "Was he called out because of the sirens I heard last night?" Jenny enquired. 

"Yes. A young man beat his parents to death with a baseball bat and set the house on fire. Just after he drenched the house with kerosene and set it to fire his little 6 year old brother came running up to him. While the older brother still held the bloody baseball bat in his hand...he dragged his little brother in the living room, cracked him hard on the skull splitting it open. Guess he died instantly! After accomplishing that the older brother torched the rest of the house. The Police found him standing in front of the house watching it burn, his eyes wide and wild. They said the older boy’s face and hands were scorched from standing so close to the fire while he repeatedly whispered…"I did what you told me to do." There had been no one else around until the police showed up. The young man confessed to everything…told it all in detail.

 

 

DAY THREE

It was in the middle of the afternoon when Jenny heard the sirens just a street over to the west of her house. A feeling of great lose had suddenly engulfed her senses once again. This time she her curiosity got the best of her and she decided to walk over to investigate the situation. A pretty sight it was not. Two men lay foot to foot at strange angles and with many people screaming and crying. No one was near the bodies. All appeared to be as if they were crying zombies wondering around the front yard. Jenny noticed an individual who was not crying and went over to ask her what happened. The other woman stated matter of factly, "These were two brothers, 36 and 38 years of age. Today they were celebrating their birthdays; they had been drinking heavily all morning…...they did this celebrating every year and started pretty early today. They weren’t twins you know but they shared that same special day. Then as if lightening had struck them, they both got violently angry and each pulled a gun and shot the other! Those fools! They wasted their young lives over drink and a woman neither could have! The oldest brother was married to the well respected Martha Dew, but she was in love with the younger brother."

Jenny asked where they had gotten the guns. The older woman stated, "It was a surprise to all that they had just pulled them out from the waist of their pants. Never heard of such nonsense! They never carried guns before. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember either of them ever owning a gun. These were well respected community men….the one was the Mayor’s son."

 

 

Copy Right © October 20, 2004 All Rights Reserved HCD/Eliza

Revised 1/22/07