The Curse of the Blood Moon

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. That could only mean one thing.

She was back.

It all started one night in a clearing in the woods, under a blood moon eclipse. The sky was calm with some dreamy clouds up above her in the sky. It had to be that night. It was the fated night. This was the only night she could bring back her lover.

***

Earlier in the day

She had summoned her familiar. She followed all of the instructions. She brought the ingredients. And the gift. She had spent all day preparing. She wore her favorite silk gown and her white lace gloves. A large oval red ruby adorned her ring finer nicely accenting the delicate lace gloves. Before she left the cabin, she drank the elixir she had prepared, some of it simple really; but some of the ingredients were rare and it had already taken her several blood moon cycles to gather all that was required. She longed to be reunited with her lover. She missed him dearly, and simply could not bear the thought of enduring one more night without him. She stared out of the window towards the south and saw the final light from the sun dip below the horizon line.

“One last sunset without you, my love.” She said into the darkness.

She closed her eyes softly and reminisced about the times they danced together at twilight. She slowly swayed as she heard the music play in the memory of them together. She could almost feel his hands around her waist and feel his breath on her neck.

It was time. This was the night.

She stood from the table and lit a singular long candle, she removed her glove and the beautiful ruby and picked up the knife beside the candle. She extended her left hand over the candle and clasped her hand over the knife and swiftly but carefully sliced a thin layer of skin enough to draw blood. She dripped the blood down the sides of the candle, further igniting it’s flame as it dripped near the dancing light in the darkness.

***

The moon was about to reach its peak. She only had seven minutes on either side of the height of the eclipse, to summon the familiar from the underworld, drink the potion as an offering to the moon gods, and solve the riddle. She brought the Datura root and also the plants delicate white flowers as requested, and carefully laid them around her in a circle. The wind softly howled around her, she loved its haunting sound. It gave her the most delicious chills. Then she heard wings flapping and the caw of the raven. It landed with her in the large circle. She placed the crushed root at the raven’s feet and poured her potion into the clear goblet. She looked at the raven. The raven looked back at her. She then looked up an rose her glass to the moon. The raven cawed, watching her. Slowly she now brought the large goblet to her deep wine colored lips and smiled. She closed her eyes as she enjoyed the sip.

As, the moon started to become eclipsed she waited. The crow next to her. Then she appeared. The familiar from the underworld. The familiar was familiar indeed, for she had been the one to murder her lover. As the familiar turned around to face her, her eyes grew wide with fear. She had hoped to summon a familiar to make a deal, but this would work too. She would not be without her lover.

“You.” Said the familiar with disdain

She just smiled. “Game over.” she said flatly as the familiar raised a sword and brought it down through her chest.

Her body fell to the ground. The familiar stepped over the lifeless body and walked out of the circle. The raven flew to the north and where her body delicately laid a moth appeared and seemed to be unable to leave the circle.

As, the wind blew through the night the flowers slowly faded off into the wind. As the final flower flew away from the body, the moth then flew away to the south.

***

It has now been many many blood moon cycles, a century of them it seemed.

The light from the candle slowly danced in the cabin window. She was back.