Chapter Three Selenophobia

It’s a jungle out there. Trees grow all around you in the forest, birds and wild animals are nearby in the woods, and other eerie sounds coming up from somewhere. Those clouds block out the moonlight, though it keeps on playing peekaboo trust me, I know.

I am Travis and I joined my wicked friends playing hide and seek one midnight in the forest. It was a terrible night because the full moon encircled the whole sky and I am afraid of it. I have Selenophobia (fear of the moon) which originates from my painful imagination since childhood. I do believe that if I face a full moon there was something emerge from the darkness like childhood legendary monsters even though it’s far from reality I still believe in it until now.

I saw from my finger a silver ring with the engraved of a wolf.

Maybe the wolf represents my fear and the wolf comes out especially in the full moon.

“1….2…..3……Ready or not, here I come!!!! Come out, guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Booom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I heard screams and chuckled nearby the woods, maybe my friends are being caught by Timothy (seeker) and the game was over. Yes!! We played hide and seek and we conceal ourselves in some big trees…shades…woods just to escape the seeker. As a hider, we must yell “boom game over!!” when we touch the home base. I don’t know if I can survive this game because right now I cannot move a muscle as I stared at the moon, tears flowing from my eyes as I heard the uncanny howling of wolves and owls. Hunting for prey and ready to devour something. A hot breeze tore through the trees, making them quiver. Something tumbled down across my hair and over my shoulder. I brushed it off, thinking at first that it was a leaf, but there is something lingers in my skin.

            “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!” I scream so loud that I can break the branches of the tree. For the slightest instant, I saw Claire beside me.

            “Hey!!! hey!!! calm down it's ok!!!! I didn’t mean to scare you but we have to move in another direction because Timothy might find us before we reach the “home base”.

            I began to cry again.

            “Hey are you ok?” Claire asks.

            She saw me sitting duck and I froze… trembling in my position.

            “I can’t…..I am…..afraid………… my voice is rattled.

            “Afraid of what?

            “Afraid of ……. And I look up to guide her to my answer and she smiles back at me in a sweet manner that I can’t resist.

            “The full moon taught me that something worst happens and I cannot do anything to fight this crap inside of me.”

            “It’s just a moon…. The full moon shone and gives us brightness like the sun. It gives us light to guide us where we are going….just our lives….direction……signal………hey do you watch ghost stories and horror flicks? They are just sorts of entertainment to frighten little kids not to go out at home during midnight and make them sleep earlier.”

            “There is nothing to be afraid of but you. You need to face yourself to overcome your fear. Understand?” she said.

            For the first time in my life I feel relieved beside of him…. Besides my long-lost crush and I don’t want to spoil this night because of my weakness.

            “Come….take my hand and we will find a way to survive the game.” She offers me her hand. I thought of saying something but I control myself instead I take her hand so tight and we manage to run in the forest.

            As we avoid bunches of twigs I saw in my vision some hallucination like the werewolves followed us…..bats are circling in the sky and other unbelievable thoughts. I silently cursed myself for allowing those hallucinations to swallow my sanity so I close my eyes.

            “What are doing?” she asked me when he notices I close my eyes.

            “To prevent me from being afraid of something.” I still close my eyes even though we’re running.

            “ Fear of something unbelievable is just a fragment of your imagination.” She said as she pulled me into a nearby sycamore tree and hurled me down into darkness.

            “There!!!!!!!!!!!!! Home base!”

            “What??????? I open my eyes and to my surprise I see the arrowhead carve in the trunk of a sycamore tree. The sign of home base and the sign for the final piece of the game.

            When it was about the time, Timothy came out from somewhere, and my hallucination return, I saw him as a vampire rolling his long red tongue and bloody fangs then it transforms into a big black wolf. Its mouth open wide with a big deadly snarl ready to devour human flesh.

            “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! I scream again from the top of my lungs  

            “Hahahahahaha!!!! You’ll gonna die here!!!” The Shinigami echoed in my mind.

I thought I pass out but I was wrong. Claire clings my arms and we jumped near the trunk of the tree to touch the arrowhead while Timothy is somewhat followed us in our direction.

            We jump and I thought we can have an accident but we simply stumbled into the ground while Claire raise both hands and touch the arrowhead then shout “boom!!!!!!!!!!Game OVER!!!!!”

            “ArggggggggggggggggHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Timothy despises his menacing grin in a total defeat. Disgust and frustration lies with his expression as he stares at us nearby the sycamore tree.

            I catch my breath and Claire helps me to stand in front of the tree. She faces me with both our hands reach each other. She looks me directly into my eyes.

            “You know…. I also have a phobia…..Anthropophobia (fear of rejection) I was about to court someone and I cannot tell her what I feel because I’m afraid that she will never love me back. “

            Silence echoed the whole forest and I am so nervous and I feel a slight pain because I think she is fall in love with someone.

            “Oh!!! Maybe it’s just your imagination. There is nothing to fear of and I guess first the pain never kill you huh…Hahaha!” then we laughed hard until the next thing become serious.

            “Tell me. Who is he?” I pretend to be friendly to my question and I smile back at her.

            “He is the guy in front of me right now!!!!” She laughs as she shudders for a romantic thing.

            “Oh!!!!!!!” I felt myself going red and hoped he didn’t notice… I bite my lips and then I stare at her. She is so beautiful with her intense blue eyes.

            She made it seem like the forest had no moon and her eyes sparkling down.

            She was about to speak again.

            “So…. What now?” she asks.

            “I guess we need to overcome our fears because it is just an illusion and we have each other now.” I smile back at her again.

“REALLY?????????????????” with her big wide smile and crystal blue eyes, I can’t help myself but fall in love with this girl.

Everything was too perfect and we laugh at each other then she pulled me in her direction and we hug each other so tight as we faced the full moon higher in the sky. I knew for certain now that I overcame my fear and Claire help me a lot and saves the day.

The full moon and a lot of stars circled witnessed the love of two people conquered the fear inside of them as they outsmart the seeker and won the game.

Suddenly, something happened. I saw nothing; total darkness crept into my vision.