When the Moon Calls

Mark nearly snarled as his phone chimed for what seemed to be the umpteenth time. His shift at the warehouse ended only a few hours ago and it was like chickens running around with their heads chopped off whenever he left. It was a rare delight to encounter the nights that he was actually permitted to sleep through the night.

On top of the texts that were just brimming with simple incompetency, the morons that lit up his phone in the middle of the night always seemed to wake up his wife, Mika, who suffered from insomnia to begin with. The raise Mark agreed to that stated he kept his ringer on for these occasions never seemed worth it when he saw Mika the next day, curled up in the guest room with dark circles under her eyes from her attempts to get away from the constant chiming.

Mark rubbed a hand over eyes to clear them, trying to understand the ridiculous amount of messages but he must have been more tired than he thought since they didn’t make sense.

He quickly scrolled through the message previews, finding they all seemed to follow the same pattern: to look at the moon. The moon? What the -? Why?

It was like a shot to his adrenaline when he saw that some of the messages were coming from Mika’s phone. He shot up from bed, seeing the other side empty, and jumped to his feet.

“Hun, what’s going on,” Mark questioned, still scrolling through his phone while walking towards the guest room. The room was at the end of the hallway and the door was wide open. He could see Mika standing in the middle of the room, arms down by her side and phone clutched in her hand as she gazed out the window.

As he grew closer, he could see that she was shaking, “Meek? Honey? What’s wrong, why-”

Mika’s body whipped toward him and Mark couldn’t help himself, he froze in place. She ran and shoved her body into the door, slamming it shut and locking it in place.

The speed was all wrong though, Mark had never seen her move that fast. It was insane, it was...inhuman….

His own body started to tremble when he remembered her eyes. Her pupils were dilated and not a single bit of the green irises he loved so much were left.

He was just about to ram his own body into the door, to beg her to let him in and make her explain what was happening, but then she started sobbing.

“Mark! You need to run, you need to hide! I’m so sorry, god I am so sorry. Run, Mark, and whatever you do, don’t look at the moon!”

Mark started pounding his fists on the door and trying to shove his weight against it, but she must have blocked it with something.

Despite his shouting and his pleading to be let in, his forgotten phone on the hallway floor seemed to crack through the commotion as the alarms of the emergency alert system distracted him for just a moment. The robotic voice started to play from his phone automatically, “WARNING. THIS IS NOT A TEST. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY ALERT. DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON. WARNING. THIS IS NOT A TES-”

Mark thought his distress was at its peak, nothing was making sense and he just needed to get Mika so they could deal with this together. He just needed to-

Her screams started and it struck him cold to the very center of his being. He began pounding and kicking at the door until it gave way under his body. Mika was on the floor, writhing in the moonlight. Mark couldn’t help it, his knees buckled and he emptied the contents of his stomach right where he stood.

Mika's body was bent at every wrong angle possible but she wasn’t screaming anymore. Her head snapped in his direction with that ungodly speed again. Bathed in the moon’s light and pupils still completely dilated, she smiled up at him as if every bone in her body wasn’t broken.

In the same voice she used to tell soothe him time after time, she whispered, “Look at the moon, Mark.”

Mark's heart raced as he stumbled backward, tripping over his own feet as he tried to escape the room. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Mika, the love of his life, was lying on the floor with her body bent at impossible angles, yet she was still smiling up at him.

He couldn't comprehend what was happening. Was this a nightmare? A hallucination? Was he losing his mind? He tried to shake off the fear and confusion that gripped him, but it was like trying to swim against a current.

His eyes flicked back to the window and the full moon that shone down on them. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. The moon was closer, larger, and its light was brighter, almost hypnotic.

"Look at the moon, Mark," Mika repeated, her voice still soft and soothing. But now there was something else in her tone, something unsettling.

Mark tried to resist the pull of the moon, but it was like a magnetic force drawing him closer. He stumbled towards the window, his eyes fixed on the glowing orb in the sky. It was mesmerizing, yet terrifying at the same time.

As he approached the window, he saw that the moon was not alone in the sky. There were other celestial bodies, large and small, moving towards Earth at an alarming speed.

Mark's heart raced as he tried to make sense of what was happening. Was it an alien invasion? Some kind of cosmic event? He had no idea, but he knew one thing for sure - they had to get out of there.

He turned to Mika, who was now sitting up, her broken bones healed and her pupils back to their normal size. "We have to leave, now," he said urgently, reaching for her hand.

But Mika shook her head. "I can't go with you," she said. "I'm not human anymore."

Mark's heart sank at her words. He couldn't bear the thought of leaving her behind, but he knew she was right. He had to get to safety and find a way to fight back against whatever was happening.

As he turned to leave, Mika called out to him. "Mark, wait," she said. "I have something for you."

She handed him a small vial filled with a shimmering liquid. "It's a serum," she explained. "It will protect you from the moon's influence."

Mark didn't know whether to believe her or not, but he took the vial anyway. He had to try everything he could to survive.

As he made his way outside, he saw that chaos had descended upon the world. People were running in the streets, screaming and panicking as the moon and the other celestial bodies drew closer. He could feel the moon's pull on his body, but he drank the serum and felt its effects almost immediately. He was able to resist the moon's hypnotic influence and keep his wits about him.

He made his way to the nearest shelter, where he found other survivors who had managed to resist the moon's influence. They banded together, pooling their resources and their knowledge to try and find a way to stop the invasion. Days turned into weeks as they fought against the invaders, using every weapon and tactic at their disposal. It was a brutal and exhausting battle, but they refused to give up.

In the end, it was Mark who discovered the invaders' weakness. He found a way to use the serum to create a weapon that could neutralize the moon's influence and destroy the invaders once and for all.