The Lunari

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. In my personal experience, space is less like a vacuum and more like the deepest parts of the ocean. You can scream, and you can wave your limbs around like a madman, but it would all be futile. In the same way that the bottom of the ocean presents an endless darkness filled with endless mutated lifeforms seeking vengeance on its failed steward, space is an infinite void of oblivion that is, most likely, full of alien life that probably hates humans.

Why would aliens hate humans?

Simple: because we are human.

If there were billions of species of aliens in the universe and beyond, I doubt any of them are excited about how humanity thinks it is the center of the universe.

Then again, in my experience, aliens are pretty friendly.

Hold on, I might be getting ahead of myself. Before I dive into my riveting experiences with Narlogs, Ysmiraxes, Peltas, and other alien beings that kind of tolerate my personality, let's go back to where humanity's first experience with alien life all began:

I was thirteen years old when the moon disappeared.

It didn’t become hidden by clouds and then come back, it didn’t go through a new moon phase and return—it completely disappeared. Those of us who watched it happen don’t know how to describe it other than to explain the events of the night it left us. We would not be able to explain why it happened—there was nothing in the sky that night that was seen to place the blame on, and there were no government probes sent up to destroy the moon.

It just… vanished.

On December 31st, 2028, it was predicted that there would be a blood moon and lunar eclipse. This was the first time in a long time that a blood moon had occurred on the new year, and certainly the first time in my lifetime. Excitement couldn’t summarize the ecstatic feelings that were blooming in my young heart. Along with my older brother and my parents, we all piled onto the roof of our apartment building in San Francisco in hopes to watch the eclipse take place. Wrapped in a fuzzy blanket and a scarf, I sat down between my mother and seventeen-year-old brother as we all stared up at the moon. Thanks to light pollution, it was not as bright red as non-city places, but the discoloration was still there. If anything, it was shit-brown. The shadow of the earth creeped slowly over the face of the moon as its light began to be covered. Silver and white were overshadowed with brown and rust, forming a crescent shape the longer the eclipse went on.

When the moon was fully dark, looking as if someone had punched the sky and given it a black eye, I heard my mother turn and comment to my father about how it was remaining dark for much longer than predicted. The eclipse was only supposed to last eight minutes, apparently. We had been staring at the dark mass for eleven. It was then that things changed to never be the same again.

I felt my eyes widen as I reached to the side and tugged at my mother’s sleeve without pulling my gaze from the sky.

“Mom,” I said, my voice filled with worry, “is the moon supposed to be doing that?”

My mother stopped in her conversation with my father and looked up as well. The gasp that escaped her lips was all that I needed to know that something was wrong. The moon was slowly disappearing. From bottom to top, we watched as the round mass began to essentially fade from the sky. As its visibility decreased with every inch that was stripped away, the leftover end became a brighter red than before. After merely minutes, the entirety of the moon was gone, save for one, surviving sliver. It could be said that it was burning the sky with how bright it had become, painting the previously black night with a tint of blood red.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the moon was gone.

We sat in silence as the night was enveloped in darkness. The stars were still where they were, but the light of the moon that existed before the eclipse was lacking. Although we were in the city, we were engulfed in silence, as if life itself had left with the moon. Swallowing thickly, I turned to my mother with the hope that she would know what had just happened.

“Where did the moon go?” I asked her, looking up as she seemed to have gone sheet white. “Is it coming back, Mom?”

My mother breathed deeply, closing her eyes as if to calm herself before she turned to me and gave me a small, reassuring smile.

“It’s okay darling,” she told me as she grasped my shoulders with gentle hands. “I’m sure everything is fine. It was probably just covered by some clouds. Let’s get you and your brother to bed now, alright?”

Cayden, who had been silent until now, seemed upset by her words. “Bed? Mom, the moon just disappeared. Even more so, it did it after shining like the red lights on a police car! You’re telling me that you expect us to go to bed at 9pm now? What the hell just happened?”

I was afraid. As Cayden seemed to be overwhelmed with frustration and obvious fear, I worried that things were worse than my mom was letting on.

“Cayden,” Mom said calmly as she gave him the look that all mothers give their children, “I need you to take Maggie inside and get ready for bed. Please.”

Almost immediately, my brother’s protests fell silent as he paused after hearing my mother’s plea. Cayden grabbed my hand and pulled me up from where I was sitting, giving me a weak smile. “Alright, kiddo, let's get you to bed.”

I wanted to protest. I wanted to speak up and demand that I be told what the hell had just happened because there was no way whatever had just happened was normal. However, not wanting to cause any more trouble for my mom, I simply nodded my head and went with my father, looking back just before the door to the roof closed.

Mom was talking to my dad in hushed voices, and her eyes were wet with tears. My father held her close to him, almost as if he was about to lose her, and kissed her forehead softly. Mother’s gaze met mine, and she gave me one, sad smile before the door completely shut.

Had I known that that night was the last time my family would be together, I would have never left that roof.

The following morning, my mother, in the same nature as our once glorious moon, was gone, and reports of an alien space ship landing in the once existing Florida was on the morning news.

Of course, it would be Florida.