My development as a horror writer continued in 2021, when I had the opportunity to write two pieces of fiction for the second edition of Into the Wyrd and Wild, published by Wet Ink Games in collaboration with Feral Indie Studio. The stories I wrote for the game line presented a new kind of challenge for me. For previous projects, I had been given the setting and the scenery. Into the Wyrd and Wild is designed to be used with any other game world or system, and thus the players and story tellers create the setting. At the time, I had been listening to The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek, written by Kim Michele Richardson, and Appalachia was on my mind. When writing this story, I wanted to capture the feel of people who live on the outskirts. The tale hinges on a concept from Into the Wyrd and Wild called Lunar Madness, and draws on the idea that terrible things can happen when you go into places you don’t belong.

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“Pull that curtain shut,” Mama said.

Janna did as she was told, shutting out the bright light of the full moon. She glanced across the room to her grandfather, asleep in the chair next to the fire. He didn’t like the full moon. Janna wondered why.

Mama went into the tiny kitchen and Janna could hear her scraping clean the pan from supper into the dog’s bowl. The big dog, Buck, was scratching at the back door, whining and barking to be let in to eat. Janna stole another glance at Grandpa. He was stirring at the noise.

“What’s he yapping at?” Papa asked, coming into the main living room from one of the tiny bedrooms on the east side of the house.

“Hungry,” Janna said.

Papa called out to Mama. “Irelle! Get the dog!” He grumbled to himself as Mama called back an indistinct answer. She opened the back room and Janna heard Buck scramble into the house.

The sound of his collar clicking against the bowl as he ate drowned out any other sounds in the cabin. When he was finished eating, Janna heard Buck’s nails clicking across the wooden planks of the floor. He came around the corner of the kitchen, looking for her. She patted her lap, calling to him. The big dog bounded to her, licking her face and her hands as she scratched his ears and rubbed his back.

“Get that animal out of here,” Papa said coldly. He was stuffing his pipe with tobacco.

Janna rose from her seat at the window, “Come on, boy,” she said, tugging at Buck’s collar. He followed her outside to the yard where she tied him to his rope again. She sat down in the cool grass and leaned against Buck after he sank down next to her. The wind blew a warm summer breeze over her. She sighed as she stroked Buck’s broad, dark shoulders.

From her place atop the hill, she looked out over the valley. A stream separated her hilltop cabin from the next hill over and Janna could see, even in the pale darkness, the line of trees that started at the base of that hill, running up and down and up again all the way into the low mountains. The night creatures were quiet. Just a few chirps and hums from a cricket or two broke the silence of the night. She gazed up at the full moon, again wondering why Grandpa hated it so much. Janna thought it was lovely. It cast everything in the most beautiful silver glow. She looked down the hill to the stream, where the water sparkled like jewels. Buck was snoring beside her. She patted his head and rose from her spot on the ground, heading off down the hill to the stream.

She didn’t get far before she heard footsteps. She turned to see who was following her and was surprised to see Grandpa standing there. “What in the hell are you doing, girl?” he asked. His eyes were wild with fright. He grabbed her arm and began dragging her back up the hill before she could fully answer. “Get yourself killed out here, you will! You can’t be going around under the moon like that!”

“Grandpa!” Janna called. “Let go!” But he didn’t release her. “I was just going down to the water!”

“Too close,” he muttered. “Too close. You’d never be safe.”

Mama was waiting for them in the doorway. Buck was standing at attention, watching as Grandpa dragged her into the house. He barked once and tried to follow them, but Mama shut the door on him. His barking only intensified, and he scratched at the door. “Mama! Get Buck! Let him know I’m okay,” Janna said, as Grandpa pushed her down into a chair at the table.

His eyes were still wild. He came very close to her face. “Never ever go out when there’s a full moon, Janna,” he hissed.

“Now, Pa, don’t you think you’re being a little hard on her?” Papa asked Grandpa from his chair by the fire. His tobacco smoke had already filled the small room and Janna wrinkled her nose at the smell.

“No!” Grandpa argued, glaring at his son-in-law. “You can’t know how horrible it might be, Jed. You weren’t there.”

Janna looked from her Grandpa to her Papa. Both the men had fallen silent as stone. “What was horrible?” Janna dared to ask.

“Hush,” Mama said. “Go get scrubbed up for bed,” she instructed.

Janna gave a Grandpa lingering, pleading look, silently hoping he would tell her what made him so afraid. He lowered his eyes from hers, turning his head towards the fire. “Do what your Mama tells you girl,” he said stoically.

Janna felt a heaviness on her that she’d never felt before. Seemed like everyone but her was in on some dark secret. It made her feel small and scared. What could be so bad that they couldn’t tell her? “Grandpa?” she asked, reaching for his hand.

“Ah!” he gasped when she touched him. He was shaking and Janna saw tears brimming his eyes. “The madness of it!” he whispered, not looking at her. “The madness,” he said, scrubbing at his face. His features twisted, screwed up tight like he couldn’t breathe. Janna clutched his hand tighter. “Grandpa?” she whispered. “Are you alright?”

“Janna, you’re upsetting your Grandpa. Run on, now. Get to bed!” Mama came around behind her, pulling her up from the chair. Janna tried to argue but Mama had a firm grip on her as she hauled her towards the door of her tiny bedroom. Mama shoved her inside then shut the door tight behind her.

Angry and embarrassed, Janna thought about barging straight out her room and confronting them about what they were hiding. As her hand came to the handle, she thought better of it. Someone was wailing, and she could hear low arguing. The fighting grew louder and after a few minutes she could make out the words Mama and Papa were saying.

“You can’t hide it from her now, Irelle!” Papa yelled.

“What good would it do?” There was a pause. “Just look at him! What good does it do to drag it up out of the past? Would it stop these fits he has at the sight of the moon? At the thought of the woods?” Grandpa’s moaning and wailing had continued through the arguing.

“She won’t forget this, Irelle, and she’ll wonder,” Papa said, his voice angry and hard.

“She’s a good girl, Jed! She won’t want to send him into a fit!”

There was a scuffling sound, and Janna wondered what was happening. She heard a chair scooting across the floor and outside Buck was barking again. But the arguing was done and so was the wailing. She pressed her ear to the door, holding her breath. She could hear low murmuring but nothing else.

She flew across the room at the sounds of footsteps approaching her door. She hopped into her bed and ducked under the covers to hide the fact that she hadn’t changed into her nightgown yet. Her door creaked open and Mama stood there in the doorway, looking as hard and bitter as the ice on a pond. “Bed,” she said, sounding like ice too. Mama wiped a hand across her face. “Don’t you ask about things you don’t know about again,” she said. She quickly shut the door.

In the morning, Grandpa seemed his usual self, though Janna kept a close eye on him at breakfast to satisfy herself that he hadn’t lost his wits. Despite her scrutiny, there was no sign of the wildness she had seen in him last night. Whatever had disturbed him had vanished like the moon in the face of the sun.

When dusk came, she made sure to close the curtain before Mama asked. She sat outside with Buck after he’d eaten just like she normally did, but she made sure to stay close to the house. There were clouds in the sky tonight, but she didn’t think clouds would prevent her Grandpa from fearing for her if she wandered too far away again. The air was full of sound tonight, not like last night, when it had been unnaturally quiet. Janna wondered about that too, gazing down the hill, across the stream into the woods.

               “Janna!” Mama called from the doorway.

               She gave Buck a scratch behind his ears, hugging his neck before she rose from her place beside him. Brushing off her skirts, she went to the house, sure that Mama would instruct her to head straight for bed. She’d pass Grandpa, nodding off in the chair by the fire, and Papa, silently smoking his pipe, just as she always did at night time when she was sent to bed. She’d lay awake for a time listening to the night sounds of the summer.

               When she passed into the house, she frowned at what she saw. Papa and Grandpa were sitting at the kitchen table, stiff backed and stern. Mama shut the door behind her and gave her a little nudge forward. “Sit down, girl,” she said, before she joined the men at the table. Janna swallowed nervously. She tried to think what she might have done that would get her into trouble. The only thing she could think of was what had happened last night.

               She slowly slunk into her chair at the table, trying to make herself small. “Am I in trouble?” she asked timidly.

               Grandpa smiled, then reached for her. She gladly took his hand as she met his gaze. “No, girl. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

               “Then why do you all look so stern?” she asked. She sat a little taller in the chair.

               “Do you want to tell her?” Papa asked. Janna wasn’t sure who he was asking.

               Mama cleared her throat. “Janna, something bad happened to Grandpa,” she began.

               Fear clutched her. “Are you hurt?” she asked, her eyes feeling too wet.

               “It was a long time ago,” Grandpa said. His face twisted with grief for just a moment before he continued. “It’s why I was afraid for you last night. When I saw you, going down the hill…” He broke, his sentence ending in a rasping gasp.

               “Grandpa, you don’t have to say if you don’t want,” Janna offered.

               He shook his head, dismissing her concern. “Not even your Mama knows all of it,” he continued, composing himself. “But, I think maybe I should tell you what really happened the night we lost Abel.”

               Abel. Her uncle she’d never met. Something bad had happened to him. Mama didn’t talk about it and neither did Grandpa. Janna’s thoughts raced. Could it have something to do with the strange way Grandpa acted about the moon? Could it have something to do with the woods?

               Grandpa squeezed her hand. “I can’t talk about without going a little…strange…” he struggled to say. “It’s like something is in me that doesn’t want to come out. Like something cast a spell over me to keep my tongue behind my teeth.”

               Janna’s heart was hammering now. She tried slow steady breaths to calm herself, but it didn’t work. Still her heart thudded against her ribs like it meant to burst from her. “Did you go into the woods, Grandpa? Did something happen?” she asked. If Janna could ask him questions, then maybe he wouldn’t have to talk. Maybe they could understand without him having to say any words at all.

               Grandpa nodded, his face twisted with pain. He made a noise like he was choking and clutched at his throat. Breathing rapidly, raggedly, he squeezed her hand tighter, until it hurt. Fear was slithering through her, like a cold, creeping spell. She shivered.

               “Stop!” Mama called. “Pap, please. Don’t talk of it. You know you can’t!”

               Janna’s fear for Grandpa overpowered her curiosity. “I don’t need to know, Grandpa,” she whispered. “Whatever it was, it doesn’t matter. I promise I won’t go near the woods again.”

               He nodded again, and the terrifying purple color began to drain from his face. “Can’t say. She won’t let me say,” Grandpa gasped.

               Janna couldn’t help herself. “Who?” she asked softly.

               Grandpa only shook his head, rubbing his throat as if it pained him.

               “The woman who took Abel,” Mama said softly.

               Janna’s eyes flew to Mama. “What do you know?” she asked.

               “That’s all we know,” Papa said. Grandpa got up from the table, slowly moving across the room to his chair by the fire.  “That’s all we need to know,” Papa added.

               Janna watched Grandpa for a time, rubbing his throat and his face, before falling asleep in the chair like it was any other night. Outside Buck was scratching at the door like he always did. Janna wondered if he was afraid of the woods too.