Dark Rain: 15 Short Tales (5 page)

Within the flame.

The surface took on more shape and detail—craters and rocks and dirt all appearing in perfect clarity. As they did so, something happened. Something startling. Something that would forever change my life.

I felt myself rushing toward that image.

Rushing to the moon.

This isn’t happening,
I thought.

It can’t be happening.

I’m dreaming.

Dreaming… dreaming…

I considered pinching myself, slapping myself… anything to awaken. Anything to prove that this wasn’t happening. That I wasn’t where I now found myself. Where I now found myself
perched
.On the surface of the moon.

The creature remained silent as I grappled with what stretched out before me: a rolling sea of bone-white hills. Silent, I suspected, so that I could soak it all in without distraction.

Yes, I had always had an affinity for the moon. I was almost—
almost
—not very surprised when I finally married a man named Danny Moon.

Often, I gazed up at the heavens. But not just the heavens. The moon itself.

The moon… always.

Okay.
I nodded in the vastness of space.
There is a small chance that this might be happening.

Stillness.

Complete silence.

Before me and all around me was an empty, barren landscape. I expected to feel wind, or to hear…
something
.

I heard nothing, felt nothing.

No, that wasn’t true.

I felt cold. Colder than I’d ever felt before. I was almost—almost—uncomfortable. But not quite. Not me. Not in this form.

I found myself on a steep, craggy rock. A tor, some might call it. I looked down and saw that my clawed talons were gripping a stony overhang. As I shifted, some of the rock broke loose and fell away. But the pieces didn’t fall away in a manner I was used to. They tumbled away as if in slow motion.

In fact, the rock and dust fragments almost
drifted
away, as if descending slowly through the deep seas. I was imminently aware that I was witnessing something few humans—mortal or immortal—had ever experienced.

I’m here. I’m really here. The moon.

The rock fragments finally hit a bigger boulder far below me, rebounded off it, seemed to hover briefly in mid-air, then continued down, finally landing in a puff of white dirt.

I knew from my research that the moon had only a hint of an atmosphere, and nothing close to oxygen. Which I didn’t need, not in this form and not in my human form. Lucky, right?

So what now, Sam?
the creature asked.

I want to fly,
I said.

Then so be it.

But can I?

Stretch out your wings… and let’s see.

You mean, you don’t know?

The creature chuckled in my head
. I’m learning right along with you, Sam.

And so I did as I was told. I stretched out my wings—our wings. I stretched them wide… then beat them once.

There’s not much resistance,
I reported back.

Keep going. I can help you.

Help me how?

I’m not from your Earth, Sam, or even from your universe. I can fly in extreme conditions.

Even with little or no atmosphere?

Try me.

I flapped them harder and harder. Now, I sensed the creature’s excitement, as well. This was a new experience for him, too. And he loved to fly. Boy, did he.

Luckily, so did I.

I continued flapping, generating some air movement around me, but not much. Dust particles billowed and stirred. I wondered if this was the first time they had
ever
done so.

Okay,
I thought.
Here goes.

I leapt off the rocky perch and into the surrounding blackness as I sensed the creature aiding my flight. I also sensed a sort of energy field around me. Was I, in fact, flying within it? Well, whatever it was, it seemed to work.

After all, I was flying.

High above the lunar surface.

It took some getting used to.

One thing about the creature’s body: it was engineered to fly… seemingly anywhere. Through time and space and everything in-between.

I stretched my wings and glided down a rocky escarpment. My shadow raced below me, as the sun itself bathed the moon as surely as it did the Earth.

That gave me a pause for thought: yes, I was in direct sunlight now, although it was muted and etched by the blackness of deep space. The sunlight did not seem to affect me or the creature. I next wondered if it would affect Talos back on Earth. In fact, I often wondered that.

I had never transformed into the giant flying bat back on Earth during the daylight.

You are not affected by the sun?
I asked.

No, Sam.

So, when I am back on Earth…

Yes, you can transform and have my full strength during the light of day.

Mind,
I said.
Blown.

An Earth idiom, I presume.

You presume correctly.

But I am also much easier to spot, since I am a black, giant, vampire bat and all.

Good point.

No longer concerned about the sun, I continued my flyover. Surely someone with a telescope, somewhere, was reporting a bat-shaped anomaly moving across the surface of the moon.

I grinned evilly. Have to get my kicks in somewhere.

Before me was a massive, circular ring. And it was, to paraphrase Tammy…
ginormous
.

I followed the circle of rock, banking slightly; whatever meteorite had hit this had been huge, deeply scarring the moon face.

I veered away from the crater, aware of one thing. I was alone. Completely alone.

A whole world…

To myself.

I liked that.

I liked that a lot.

I dipped in and out of valleys, up and over small mountains and hills and ridges. Always, there was emptiness. Always, there was the silence. And with the silence, there was peace.

The only movement was my own shadow beneath me, weaving in and out of chasms and over hills, speeding rapidly along, keeping pace.

I continued flying—and continued laughing to myself. Mostly, I continued expecting to wake up in bed at any moment.

But I never woke up.