Dark Side of the Moon

By Amy B. Reineri

Thirty-one tales inspired by the spookier side of October. Jack-o-lanterns, black cats and other denizens of the night populate these short stories about alternative realities where things are almost never what they seem.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy B. Reineri
• Release date: Nov 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989948708

Amy B. Reineri

Amy B. Reineri is an architect living in SE Virginia with her husband Dave and two independent cats. Works range from short stories to novels and musicals, fiction to non-fiction. Inspired by S-F, Fantasy, Horror, The Twilight Zone (it is always a trap) and classic House of Mystery.

Book preview

Bad Hair Day

I remember my mother: she was a beautiful woman and very concerned about her appearance. Her hair was something she was especially careful about. She never wanted my father touching her hair and it was always perfectly styled. I have no idea what their private lives were like, but my sisters and I definitely had the impression that he never got to put his hands into the teased, coiffed, perfumed mass of hair perpetually still at the top of her head. She kept it covered with a scarf or rain bonnet when she went outdoors. As far as I know, a single ray of sunlight never reached her hair, much less the top of her head.

She also kept her makeup in perfect condition twenty-four hours a day. Many girls at school talked about watching their mothers put on makeup, but no one in the family was allowed in the room when Momma was putting her face on, as she called it.

All of us do remember the one time we saw Momma with her hair messed up. She had taken us to the bank and left us all in the car while she went inside. We didn’t feel very hot at first, but as the sun shone through the car windows it made things uncomfortable, so we opened the windows all the way. It was taking longer than usual for Momma to come out of the bank and after a while we grew bored and impatient. Suzanna, the youngest, started to make a lot of noise. We could only deal with that for so long, so finally my sisters and I all got out of the car and walked over to the bank.

Inside, it was quiet like usual, but we were very surprised to see everybody lying on the floor on their bellies like snakes. At first it seemed kind of funny, as if they were playing some sort of game. But then a man started yelling at us and we could see him and another man were waving guns around. Momma lay near the counter and she got up on her feet then, but one of the men grabbed her. He just reached out his big old hand and grabbed a big hunk of her hair right through the scarf. We were all pretty shocked. There was no way Momma was going to allow him to do that. But he had her by the hair and he kept right on yelling at us and now he was yelling at her, too. We were too surprised to pay much attention to what he said at first, I admit it. I guess now that he was telling us to get down on the floor with everyone else, but we didn’t do it. That is when something strange happened with Momma’s hair. She looked angry, like she was going to backhand that man into the next county when all of a sudden he screamed like he was dying or something. He made a noise like a rabbit being killed. It was louder than the yelling and it still makes a shiver run down my spine when I think about it to this very day. He pulled back his hand from out of Momma’s hair and there was no hand there! He had lost his hand and there was a terrible mess of blood going everywhere.

Then it got really confusing. Someone grabbed the other man with the gun and Momma turned around and she smacked the first man really hard on the face, just like we thought she would. And when she turned around, we could see that Momma did have eyes in the back of her head, just like Papa always said she did. None of us had them, but Momma had two bright red eyes and some very long, sharp teeth right there in the back of her head! But we only saw them for a second, because she reached back to cover her hair and pulled another scarf from her pocket quick as you please while everybody else was getting off the floor and grabbing the gunman and running around like crazy people.

Momma put on her scarf, rushed us all out to the car and took us right home after that. We wanted to ask her about what had happened but you could tell by the look of her eyes in the rear-view mirror that she was not in the mood to hear anything about it. So we kept our mouths shut. And when we got home, she went into her and Papa’s bedroom and closed the door. She came out just before Papa came home and she had made her hair and her face up all nice like usual by then.

Some policemen came by, before dinner was ready, and talked to our folks out on the front lawn. We were not allowed to go out there, but we could hear Momma talking about how a necklace might have cut that man. She brought something outside and they took it away, but I got the idea the police were not sure at all that it was what had cut that man’s hand right off. We had a babysitter when Momma and Papa went to court about it, too. Aunt Alice, who lived one street over, came by and we made popsicles using plastic cups and fruit punch.

We snuck into their bedroom a few times over the years and opened Momma’s jewelry chest, checking the things inside it to see if they felt sharp like a knife. None of them were, though I don’t know if the policemen ever gave back the thing that Momma handed them. I do know for a fact that they never found that man’s hand.

Misunderstanding

It was a long autumn, waiting for the holidays. As the season passed, people came by steadily to adopt them and take them home. Sometimes a group was taken elsewhere to be shown. It was pretty exciting really. But there were rumors that sometimes things went terribly wrong. Rumors that their kind were taken to people’s houses and brutally murdered, the gutted corpses mutilated in strange symbolic ways and then put on display as a warning. It was a chilling, nightmarish thing to hear about, but it couldn’t possibly be true, could it? They couldn’t even move on their own. Who could possibly feel threatened by pumpkins?

Dark Red

The woods were lovely, dark and deep. And that was how she liked them. Red cape billowing behind her, the little girl skipped along the path through the woods. At first to either side of her, bunches of wild flowers grew, their colors fading into grays and whites at this hour. Farther along only the woods lined the path, and as the trees closed in overhead even the shrubs and scrub plants gave way to darkness, shadows and the occasional fallen tree which lay at the feet of the living trees like so many corpses.

She knew the path by heart, so the darkness did not faze her. On her arm, she carried a basket that swayed heavily with each skip. Grandmother would be quite pleased, she was sure.

Suddenly, two red eyes appeared ahead of her where the path vanished into the night. The light from her small lantern told her nothing of what waited up there and she came to an abrupt stop. In the sudden silence, the sound of the wolf’s approach was easy to make out. The beast walked steadily forward until the little girl could see it, the black of its fur barely picked out in the inky black of the forest.

Where are you going at this hour, little girl? The voice oozed out of the blackness.

I am going to see my grandma and bring her some treats! The girl spoke boldly, but she took a small step backwards.

The wolf stepped forward. Perhaps I may accompany you to your grandmother’s house. The woods can be a dangerous place.

The little girl shook her head, the wide edges of her hood swinging gently, No, you may not! I can find my own way and I do not need a big stinky wolf coming along to try and share the goodies.

The wolf could barely keep the mirth from his voice then. And what kind of goodies do you bring to your grandmother?

She clutched her basket closer to her side, None of your business!

Snarling, the wolf came up so close then that he almost touched her. Even walking on all fours his shoulders stood almost taller than she did. Then I guess I will just have to look for myself! With that, he seized the front of the basket handle in his teeth and started to pull it away when a searing pain exploded in his chest. Suddenly unable to breathe, the wolf drew back, mouth still open. The little