The first time Amelia saw the blood moon, someone died.
She didn't know that yet.
All she knew was that the moon looked wrong.
She stood by the bedroom window, one hand wrapped around the curtain, staring at the sky above the trees.
It was almost midnight.
The town had gone quiet hours ago, but Amelia couldn't sleep. She had tried. She'd turned her pillow over twice, closed her eyes, even counted the cracks in the ceiling.
Nothing worked.
Something had been bothering her all evening.
She couldn't explain what it was.
Maybe it was the strange feeling she'd had since she woke up that morning. Like someone had been watching her.
Or maybe it was the dream.
That stupid dream.
Amelia swallowed.
She didn't want to think about it.
In the dream, she had been standing in the middle of a forest.
Barefoot.
Alone.
There had been blood on her hands.
And someone behind her had whispered her name.
Not Amelia.
A different name.
One she'd never heard before.
Then she'd turned around and seen a pair of golden eyes staring at her from between the trees.
She'd woken up screaming.
A branch scraped against the window.
Amelia jumped.
"God."
She pressed a hand against her chest.
For a moment, she simply stood there, listening.
Nothing.
Just the wind.
She let out a shaky breath and looked outside again.
The moon was enormous tonight.
And red.
Not pink.
Not orange.
Red.
Deep, dark red.
Like something had spilled across the sky.
Amelia frowned.
She reached for her phone on the bedside table and checked the time.
11:57 p.m.
She opened her browser.
Blood moon tonight.
Several results appeared.
She clicked the first one.
A lunar eclipse.
That was all it was.
A natural phenomenon.
Nothing supernatural.
Nothing to be afraid of.
She almost laughed at herself.
"See?" she whispered. "You're being ridiculous."
Then she heard the sound.
Three knocks.
Amelia froze.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
It came from downstairs.
Her smile disappeared.
Nobody was supposed to be there.
Her mother had left that afternoon to stay with Amelia's aunt after receiving a phone call about her grandmother. She had promised to return in the morning.
Amelia was alone.
She stared at her bedroom door.
Maybe it was the wind.
Maybe something had fallen.
Then came another three knocks.
This time, louder.
Amelia grabbed her phone.
She called her mother.
It rang once.
Twice.
Then went to voicemail.
"Of course," Amelia muttered.
She stepped away from the window.
Every instinct told her to stay upstairs.
Instead, she opened the bedroom door.
The hallway was dark.
She switched on the light.
Nothing.
"Hello?"
Her voice sounded embarrassingly small.
No answer.
Amelia walked downstairs slowly.
The old wooden steps creaked beneath her feet.
She hated that staircase.
She had hated it since she was a child.
There was something about the way it groaned at night that made the house feel much bigger than it really was.
When she reached the bottom, she stopped.
The front door was still locked.
The windows were closed.
Nothing looked out of place.
She almost turned around.
Then she noticed the back door.
It was open.
Amelia stared at it.
Cold air drifted through the kitchen.
She knew she had locked that door.
She always locked it.
Her mother was obsessed with locking doors.
Amelia moved closer.
"Mom?"
Silence.
She stepped outside.
The backyard was empty.
The trees at the edge of the property swayed gently in the wind.
And beyond them was the forest.
Black.
Still.
Waiting.
Amelia shivered.
She should go back inside.
She knew that.
Instead, her eyes moved toward the trees.
Something was there.
A figure.
She blinked.
It disappeared.
Amelia's heart began to pound.
"Who's there?"
Nothing.
She took one step forward.
Then another.
A branch cracked somewhere inside the forest.
Amelia stopped.
This time, she didn't move.
A low sound drifted through the trees.
Almost like a growl.
Her breath caught.
Then she heard a voice.
"Amelia."
She nearly screamed.
The voice was barely more than a whisper.
But she heard it clearly.
Someone had said her name.
She backed away.
"Who's there?"
No answer.
The forest remained dark.
Then something moved between the trees.
Fast.
Too fast.
Amelia stumbled backward.
Her phone slipped from her hand and hit the ground.
"Shit."
She crouched to pick it up.
When she looked up again, there was a man standing at the edge of the forest.
Amelia stopped breathing.
He was tall.
Very tall.
He wore a black coat that moved slightly in the wind. His dark hair fell messily across his forehead, and even from several feet away, she could see the sharpness of his face.
But it was his eyes that terrified her.
They were fixed on her.
Golden.
Not brown.
Not hazel.
Golden.
Amelia couldn't move.
The man didn't come closer.
He simply watched her.
As though he had been waiting.
She swallowed.
"Who are you?"
His expression didn't change.
For a second, Amelia thought he wouldn't answer.
Then he said, quietly,
"You shouldn't be here."
Amelia frowned.
"This is my house."
"I know."
The words sent a strange chill through her.
"You know me?"
His jaw tightened.
"I know enough."
She stared at him.
There was something familiar about his voice.
Not because she'd heard it before.
Because she'd heard it in her dream.
Her stomach twisted.
"You were in my dream."
The man's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Amelia saw it.
Shock.
Then something colder.
Fear.
He looked toward the moon.
The red light fell across his face.
"You dreamed of me?"
Amelia nodded slowly.
He took a step back.
For the first time, he looked unsettled.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked directly at her.
"Go inside."
Amelia's fear quickly turned into irritation.
"Excuse me?"
"Lock the doors."
"Who do you think you are?"
His eyes darkened.
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it to me."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
He looked toward the forest again.
Something had caught his attention.
Amelia followed his gaze.
At first, she saw nothing.
Then she heard it.
A distant howl.
The man's face went completely still.
"Go."
There was something in his voice this time that made Amelia listen.
She took a step backward.
"Who are you?"
He looked at her one last time.
"Lucian."
The name sent an unexpected shiver through her.
Lucian.
She didn't know why, but the moment he said it, the dream came rushing back.
The forest.
The blood.
The golden eyes.
And the voice whispering a name she didn't recognize.
Amelia's eyes widened.
"Lucian..."
His expression hardened.
"Don't say my name again."
Then he turned.
And disappeared into the forest.
Amelia stood there for several seconds.
She couldn't understand what had just happened.
One minute she had been standing in her bedroom, worrying about a stupid dream.
Now she was standing barefoot in her backyard after meeting a stranger who somehow knew her name.
And somehow, the strangest part wasn't that he had vanished into the forest.
It was the way he'd looked at her.
Like he was afraid of her.
Amelia slowly picked up her phone.
The screen had cracked.
She glanced toward the forest again.
Nothing.
No Lucian.
No movement.
Just trees.
She hurried inside and locked the back door.
Then the front door.
Then she checked both again.
Her hands were shaking.
She climbed the stairs and went straight to her room.
But before she closed the curtains, something caught her eye.
A mark.
On her wrist.
Amelia frowned.
She had never seen it before.
A small crescent-shaped symbol had appeared beneath her skin.
It looked almost black beneath the red moonlight.
She touched it.
Pain shot through her wrist.
Amelia gasped and pulled her hand away.
The mark seemed to pulse once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
She stared at it, terrified.
Outside, somewhere far beyond the house, a howl echoed through the forest.
And this time, something answered.
Not one wolf.
Many.
Amelia slowly closed the curtains.
She didn't see the shadow standing between the trees.
She didn't see the golden eyes watching her window.
And she certainly didn't hear the words whispered into the darkness.
"The blood moon has found her."
Then the shadow smiled.
