Shadow of the Midnight Moon: Sal Van Sleen, #2

By Eric Kent Edstrom

When a dark witch seeks to claim Sal as her servant, he must fight against himself to protect the one he loves most.

It starts with a mysterious note attached to Sal’s bike. But when he follows its instructions, he comes face to face with a new dark force in the small town of Muskobewun.

Eric Kent Edstrom returns to the weird world of the 1980s rural Wisconsin with a brand new Sal Van Sleen short story (8000 words). Fans of Stranger Things, Goonies, and Buffy will love the world of Sal Van Sleen. Get your copy today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Undermountain Books LLC
• Release date: Jan 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386382836

Eric Kent Edstrom

Eric is the author of over a dozen novels and numerous short stories.

Book preview

1

In movies , the bell that lets out school is always a trilling sound, like a continuous single ring of a giant telephone. At Mushkobewun High the bell is a just a tone, harsh and serious. Like an EKG going flatline. It is both my favorite and least favorite sound in the world. It all depends on whether it's the first or the last bell of the day.

It was raining that fall Friday when the glorious, beloved bell signaled the death of the week. I trudged to my bike, under the weight of my backpack. The mid-October sky wept drips of icy rain on my head, but my spirits couldn't have been higher. I had a beautiful girlfriend, a whole weekend off, and a bunch of homework I didn't plan on doing until the last possible moment.

I went to the bike racks, ignoring the buzz of the hapless freshman futzing with their bike locks. I planned to buy a car soon, so I felt superior to the 14- and 15-year-olds who were doomed to at least another year of relying on bikes for their transportation. I had my eye on a used Camaro over at Jan Johansen's garage. The only thing separating me from it was $450.

I saw the weird note from 10 yards away. It was set on my handlebars, the corners tucked under the brake lines to keep it from blowing away in the wind. I snatched it up, grinning. Becky had left me a love note.

I tore it open and pulled out a card. This wasn't a Hallmark, just a plain, white, 4 x 6 piece of thick paper. It was blank. I turned it over, perplexed. There was nothing on it.

Becky wasn't the kind of girl to play pranks on me. And neither was my best friend Billy. And as far as I knew, I didn't have enemies at school.

I stuffed the card back into the envelope. That’s when I noticed a faint gray scrawl on the back: Read by the light of the midnight moon.

So somebody was playing a prank on me. I fought the urge to look around for whoever it was. I figured they were probably watching me at that very moment, laughing and pointing. So I shrugged as if I didn’t care. The card went into the inside pocket of my denim jacket. The rain was starting to fizzle out, and I wanted to race home before it decided to pick back up again.

I went to