What the Moon Told (A Short Story)

Moonlight

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to. 

-Carl Sandburg

"I can't believe they're dead." Mischa can't speak out the words as she remembers everything well that had happened that tragic night. She is still haunted by the faces of her family when they died. Traumatic thoughts keep on visiting her everytime she sleeps; moreover, she even experiences hallucinations that she is going to die next. As a psychologist, I try to manage her emotions and trauma. I want the little girl to get well. I can see myself on her. I have the same case with her. My whole family got murdered too, and up until now, the culprit is nowhere to be found.

 

"What can you see every night in your dreams?" I inquired. Her eyes wandering all over the room disturb me for a bit, but then I need to focus on her case.

"The murderer's face... it's dark. I can hardly see it. All I see is her eyes, glaring at me; as if imagining to kill me violently." she says, playing with her fingers.

"Okay." I said and sighed. "Mischa, you're safe in here. Nobody's going to harm you here. I know these past few days it's been hard for you, but you can count on these guys. And on me." I said and held her hand. I am trying to take away all her doubts and fears as possible as I can. It will do no good for her to talk about the case, but I know it will be better if she tells me everything she suffers from; so that I can give her advices and remedy.

 

I left that day and thought it over. I recalled all her testimonies she has given me. She said on the first day I interviewed her that she doesn't know the murderer. On the next day, she said she knows it. I tried to make her describe the murderer and all she said is that the murderer holds nothing but her teddy bear. The other day I asked her about other descriptions of the culprit, she said she doesn't have any idea how the murderer looks like. The day after that, she said she remembered what the culprit did exactly. She said he/she wore a big smile after killing her family. She also stated that the culprit sat on her rocking chair after doing the murder. Now, she is very panicky, as if trying to avoid the issue again. I'm glad she didn't say she didn't know the murderer. I thought she is going to create alternate affirmations about her witness. All she said is that the murderer is glaring at her.

 

The day after I last interviewed her, I went to the police station to clarify some stuff. I need to be familiar with the investigation so that I can relate to what Mischa swears. Police Officer John Dawes showed me some photographs of the murder scene, the background of each member of the family, and the testimony of Mischa. Aside from that, what was found on the murder scene was a piece of paper with blood smudges on it. There is a word that was written in it by a black ink. It says "moonlight." I asked the investigators about it. They say they didn't find anything strange about the paper. They thought it might have accidentally been in the scene but it has nothing to do with the killing. I also asked them if they never thought of it as a clue, but they told me not to interfere anymore, for I am only a psychologist. Thankfully, before they asked me to leave, I asked Officer Dawes to give me the paper to be used in Mischa's case study.

 

Tomorrow morning, the weather seemed gloomy. I heard from the transistor that it's going to rain. I headed to the welfare institution to check on Mischa.

"Hi, how do you do?" I asked her. She's drawing on the scratch papers with crayons.

She looked at me and smiled, "I'm fine. Look at my drawing." she said and smiled. After that, she handed me her drawing. I looked at it. Most of the children draw a family drawing with a sun, but on her drawing, it is night time. She drew a full moon at the top center of the paper. Below the moon, she drew their home. Her parents are holding their hands, while her brother and sister are on the opposite side of her parents. She was inside the house, holding something on top of her, looking up.