The October Malice ༄ (gxg)

twenty, moonlight drive

The moon was observant in his watch.

He had always watched over Deliverance, and he had seen everything there was to see. He knew more than any human brain could even try to know. He always hung so still in the sky, eternally holding his breath to listen to the whispers of those below him. Even the sun was jealous of his infinite knowledge.

The moon hung so quietly and so still that particular night, full and round with his craters for watchful eyes. It was Halloween night, but Deliverance's curfew prohibited the usual trick-or-treating. But the curfew did not stop the local young adults from throwing a costume party over at one of the larger homes in the East-side neighborhood whose owners were out of town that night. The young adult of the house was quick to throw a party, and as long as everyone was inside, the police could not do anything about it.

The moon's sight spread far and wide, and he could also see what was happening on the other side of the town in the more rural areas. Over past Teardrop Bridge, nestled right against the Northern mountain range, was the Indick household currently occupied by only two. It had been a couple days, and no one had seen Amanda Indick, even with the police searching far and wide for her. Jeremy had figured, since no one had found her, that she had decided to leave once and for all, and that was why he had stayed in bed all day in his dark bedroom, not even leaving to eat food.

And that was why he didn't hear Opal as she snuck through her window with his car keys in hand, revved up his old and beat-up car, pulled out of the gravel driveway whose rocks crunched under her tires, and sped away down the highway. But the moon could see. Oh, the moon could see everything.

Opal, on the other hand, could see almost nothing. Not because she was blinded, but because she was not fully there, and when a car passed her on the dark road and its headlights flickered on and off three times, something of a grin spread across her face. She was moving in and out of consciousness, stuck somewhere in between where she was not Opal and the hands attached to her arms did things Opal would never do.

She drove way faster down the highway than she should have, and the black rubber of the car's tires screeched over the yellow lines more than they should have, swerving all across the road. It was in no time that she was making her way into town, running the first red light she came to and hooking a wild left that almost made her dad's car flip over.

She almost hit a car coming in the other direction, giggling darkly as it honked and swerved out of her way, something catching its tires and causing it to flip in the air. From her rearview mirror she watched the car's red paint reflect the red light as it seemed to flip in the air in slow motion, but she only giggled and continued driving as the car behind her slid to a stop upside down in the middle of the intersection, black smoke rising from its loosely spinning wheels.

Driving through the neighborhood of luxurious homes, she sped down a few blocks before finding one house with a hefty number of cars outside and loud music coming from it. Satisfaction filled her as she brought the car to a stop in front of the white house whose windows showed shadows of people dancing and mingling. Tucking her brown jacket closer to her, she cut the engine and exited the car.

She still could not see, nor could whatever it was living inside her and controlling her every movement, even as she casually approached the house and brusquely opened the front door. She was hit with loud Halloween music, the smell of alcohol, bright purple lights, and swarms of people all dressed up in different costumes. She saw some girls dressed as cats, some people dressed as vampires or mummies, and in the corner of the room she saw Arnie with a face painted green like a zombie, his letterman jacket hanging on his thinning shoulders. It seemed like people would have assumed he was a zombie even without the makeup from the depressed, lifeless look in his eyes as he only stood in the corner and stared at the floor.