New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. Sheriff Roy Branham stopped by for a chat about the recent murder victim, Fred Spivey, but also to check up on Daniel and Cassidy. Being an old friend of both their families, he was concerned. But the sheriff’s questions brought a few new details to light, which the sheriff noted with serious concern. Once gone, it left Daniel and Cassidy facing the weight of what they’d experienced—which was a lot for any couple to shoulder, newly married or not. While processing it all, they chose to dive back into the hunt for the fountain pens. This lead to a search for a mythical safe inside Moonlight Curiosities shop itself… revealing that it might have been far more than just a myth…

November 8, 2024. Moonlight Curiosities Antique Shop. Gloamstead, Alabama. Sometimes the more you learn, the more you wish you hadn’t…

I licked my lips, watching the sallow bulb gently sway at the end of the long, aged black cord. The image of a frayed hangman’s noose with its newest customer came to mind. I pulled my eyes away from the morbid sight.

“Okay, so not a safe,” I murmured, stating the obvious.

“Nope,” Cassidy replied with a nervous yip. Her eyes were as wide as mine, riveted on the gaping entrance in the wall; a spot we’d walked past dozens of times. She bounced a little on the balls of her feet, tennis shoes squeaking against the polished wood floor. “Doesn’t look like a little room for one, either.”

We exchanged a tense look, then eased to the right to get a better look. Just past the entrance, at the ragged edge of the light, there was a narrow set of dusty stairs descending into darkness. Pipes, wiring, and insulation lined the walls like a serial killer’s fever dream. Cassidy flinched, and I let out a nervous laugh like a startled hyena. We’d fought a bloodleech eager to suck our brains out—somehow this felt like a whole other level of worse.

I drew a deep breath, holding my palms out in front of me. “Okay, we need to go in and take a look around.”

Cassidy nodded sharply. “Yep. Certainly.”

Neither of us moved.

Silence wrapped around us like a blanket until it felt like a tourniquet. I cleared my throat as Cassidy rubbed her face, then wiped her hands on her jeans.

“This is stupid,” she sighed. “Daniel, your uncle wouldn’t have left the shop to us if it had something lethal in it.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” I breathed. “Right. So, first thing. Those horror movies we’ve seen?”

Cassidy’s brow furrowed. “We don’t do what they did.”

“Right,” I nodded, then rubbed my hands together. “None of that, except we’re still going in. So let’s grab flashlights, at least one crowbar, charged battery packs, and then…” I waved a nervous hand at the yawning doorway “… deduce the hell out of this.”

“Got it,” she replied, hurrying off while I kept watch. It wouldn’t have been so bad if little gusts of air didn’t creep out the opening like soft, heavy breathing.

Cassidy returned with supplies before my nerves crawled out of my skin, eager to call it a day. We swapped one more look, then headed inside the wall.

Brown, dusty floor planks complained, creaking with a whispered moan as I stepped inside. The small room was more long than wide, allowing enough space to walk single file. I went first, crowbar ready in one hand, flashlight in the other. Cassidy crept close behind, her flashlight on to back up mine.

Two steps down, she touched my shoulder.

“Daniel, wait.”

She gently shook her head, ears stretching upward through her auburn hair. One moment they were human, the next they were brownish-red furred bat ears, twitching in all directions.

“Better.” She took a dusty breath. “We might not be able to see much with the flashlights, but I’ll hear if anything tries to jump us.”

“Let’s hope for nothing,” I replied with a weak smile.

We took the narrow staircase a step at a time, moving slowly so Cassidy could hear past the nerve-splitting creaks in the wood. Five steps down, a rattle of metal clicks chittered in the air. My stomach dropped as the door sealed behind us, the feeble light beside it winking out like a spent candle. Then a series of bulbs ahead of us picked up from there—all dangling from their own black cords—splashing a thin trail of light down to another landing.

“That beats trying to fumble between spiders for a light switch,” I quipped darkly. Cassidy chuckled nervously, nudging me forward. My nerves took over my voice. “I don’t get it. This is a lot. Why make… all of this? It feels like overkill just to hide something valuable.”

Cassidy sniffed, wrinkling her nose against the dust.

“My allergies are going to hate me,” she sighed. “I think it really depends on the valuables.”

“Like the pens?” I asked, arching an eyebrow back at her.

She pursed her lips. “Not quite. Remember, most humans don’t want to know people like me exist outside of bad horror movies. Pitchforks come out when they do until they run out of things to kill.” Cassidy shrugged. “I remember hearing stories about people, some even humans, hiding us in basements until we could slip away from angry mobs.” She patted me on the shoulder. “You know that as well as I do, love.”

“Yeah, I do,” I agreed darkly. “So it could be like some ‘underground railroad’.”

“Maybe. Still, this is really a lot,” she agreed.

The landing at the bottom of the stairs was identical to the one above. It was framed by insulation, water pipes, and bare wood braces against stained cinder blocks. I hadn’t counted the steps down, but it felt like we were below the foundation. There wasn’t a wall or another door ahead, just an open doorway into darkness.

Then the lights turned on.

Rows of jaundiced bulbs sputtered to life, casting yellow light across a wide room. Each bulb dangled from a black cord. They were like glowing drops of yellow-hot tar from the ceiling’s crossbeams, frozen in motion.

The room itself was a healthy square, at least as wide as a two-car garage. Cinder block walls, dusted with sooty smudges of age, were braced by brown wooden beams. In between those, lovingly restored stained teak shelves lined the walls, weighted down with dusty antiques and more. Earthy scents of fresh carrots, potatoes, and dried herbs haunted the air; memories of vegetables long gone.

“This can’t be real,” I breathed, easing through the doorway as I clicked off my flashlight. On my right, I saw a heavy metal pair of shed-like double doors, padlocked from the inside. A pair of ceiling fans lazily spun to wake the dust. “My uncle hid a storage room? A panic room?”

Cassidy stepped around me, bat-ears flicking against the feeble hum of the bulbs. Slowly, her eyes trailed across the furnishings and antiques, ending at a rolltop desk and long table that dominated the center of the room. She cut her eyes over to me, waving a hand at the furnishings.

“Daniel, look again.” She flicked off her flashlight, crossing to the middle of the room. Kneeling down, she studied the desk. Wiping her hands against her gray t-shirt first, she brushed her fingertips across the stained teak wood. “It’s an office.”

“Down here?”

“This desk is in such amazing shape,” she murmured, then glanced back at me. “It looks like an office.” Cassidy studied the room again, mouth a tight line. “What if…” she hesitated, then lightly shook her head. “Nope. Got nothing, other than not a storage room. Everything’s too precise. Look at the table and desk; they’re arranged, not stuck here because it was convenient.”

I walked over to join her. After setting my flashlight and crowbar on the stained wooden table, I explored the shelves. My first stop was a glowing shape inside a one-foot-tall dusty bell jar—a ghostly rose. It slowly rotated toward me as I approached; glimmering powder flaking off the petals.

“All right, an office.”

Cassidy gently grabbed the handles of the rolltop desk lid. It opened easily, sliding up and away. Inside, there were three notebooks; one open. Ballpoint pens were scattered across an old, green felt ink-blotter. A stubby, round glass container sat in the desk’s corner, filled with a greenish-gray mist brewing like a storm cloud. She pulled back an old wooden banker’s chair, sat, and read. I followed the shelves.

“Don’t handle if ink is moving…” Cassidy read aloud. She waved a hand at my confused and worried expression. “Just a note I found. I’ll figure it out.”

“Ah.” Given everything so far, that felt like the safest thing to say. I turned back to the shelves.

There were 19th-century vellum-covered books in English, Latin, and languages I didn’t recognize. Finger-length quartz and blood-drop shaped amulets rested between the short stacks like dainty bookends. There were all manner of oddities, each with a handwritten tag, but a thankful absence of skulls—human or otherwise. Partway through my browsing, I stopped dead in my tracks.

“It’s another pen,” I murmured in the quiet.

“What? Where?” Cassidy asked, glancing quickly in my direction.

“Here.” I reached for it on the shelf.

The Waterman fountain pen lay on an old gray-brown wooden stand resting atop a square of blue velvet; all of it locked away in a dusty transparent case. A lacy doily with rust needlepoint was draped over it like a miniature burial shroud. The case’s lock was small but stout—a keyed steel padlock that radiated ‘do not touch’. A thin ghosting of dust coated it all. I carried it to the desk.

Overall, the pen resembled its twin upstairs with a chrome cap and smooth sheen on the polished tortoiseshell barrel. The biggest difference was the delicate veins along its surface.

“The vine decorations,” Cassidy said, squinting at the pen. “They’re blue? No, turquoise.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Maybe. But the pattern’s sure the same. Also, that case? It doesn’t feel like glass. It’s denser. Maybe Pyrex? Not sure what the doily’s for.” I frowned, mouth pulled tight, glancing around the room.

“What is it?” she asked, watching my expression.

“It should’ve been harder to get in here. Uncle Elias went to a lot of trouble to lock away this pen,” I said, waving a hand around. “Beloved, I’ve a bad feeling about handing any of them over to Dorian.”

Cassidy touched the open journal with a finger, as if it might bite. “Daniel, I’m not sure that’s all we need to worry about. You should see this.”

I read the wrinkled page over her shoulder. The notebook was another of my uncle’s journals; much more recent than the ones at the store-all. An icy chill skittered along my spine—this was dated a few days before my uncle vanished.

“Nighthunters?” I glanced at Cassidy, then read the page again. “Your dad mentioned them once. Isn’t that one of those fringe ‘monster hunters’ groups? They’re killers!”

She slowly nodded, staring at the page with a haunted expression.

“The same.” One of her bat ears twitched from nerves. She covered her mouth with a hand, then sighed, flipping between pages. “Remember, love, most people just think Nighthunters stage it all for videos. From this, it reads like your uncle was looking into a bunch that showed up around here. They caused more trouble over in Craigbrook than here in Gloamstead, but still…”

I picked up another notebook from the desk, leafing through the pages.

“Dryads… the dryad’s ‘Court Viridis’… Dopplekin… Cassie, there’s a lot here.” I turned to the front of the notebook to what looked like a title written in my uncle’s neat handwriting.

“Bestiary of the Uncanny…?”

My words stalled out like a dying car. Closing the book, I gently set it on the desk, then rubbed my eyes. “My uncle was a Nighthunter? I… thought I knew him.”

Cassidy skimmed a few more pages in her notebook, frowning.

“No… I don’t think so,” she replied. “Look,” she tapped a page, “he wrote about Nighthunters like… well… skinshapers and anyone else. It reads like a field study, but more so. There are times, locations, and what they did. Daniel… I think he was studying them. Tracking them. At least that was the last few entries before he vanished.”

I met her concerned eyes without a word. The silence screamed volumes.

“That’s… important. But maybe not a ‘right now’ important,” I said with a rattled sigh. “Anything about the pens in there? I’ll look through the other notebook.”

A few minutes of reading paid off.

“Here,” Cassidy said, indicating a page dripping with notes. “Uncle Elias believed the pens—maybe all four—were cursed or connected to something ancient. Maybe cursed by the Dryad Court over some stupid grudge.”

“Well, that would make sense. You’ve told me more than once, dryads get really petty over stupid things,” I scoffed.

“They do.” She smoothed the page, eyes devouring the text. “Looks like he thought the pens might even contain raw Darklight.”

“The swamp lights?” I asked.

She glanced up at me, eyebrows bunched.

“Hm. They’re that and more, but yes. Mostly he was sure the pens are dangerous, especially in the wrong hands. They never run out of ink, but leak when they sense a suitable victim to compel.”

“Compel to do… what?” I felt unease prickle over my skin.

She turned the page and shrugged. “No idea. Uncle Elias wrote that he believed the pens will not give up a victim lightly. They’ll make them do all manner of horrible things just to keep the pens safe. He believed that the more pens the victim had… the worse all this got.”

“Henry Vanil,” I whispered. “Also, anyone else out there with a pen—like maybe that college student—could be next.”

We exchanged another solemn, silent look, as words felt too cheap. I put my hand on her shoulder for reassurance. Cassidy reached up, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.

“I have so many horrible questions,” I murmured.

“So do I,” she replied. “Too many. Especially around what if a bloodleech—like Valeria Moffet or Dorian—had one of these pens? Does Dorian already know about this, which is why he wants the pens?”

I pursed my lips, meeting her gaze with an even look.

“Let’s go ask him.”

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. Trying to recover from rattled nerves and being attacked in an old attic, Daniel reached for coffee and shop inventory. Neither were successful. In the end, he chewed over what happened, along with what they knew of the missing pens. But life wasn’t about to give any breathing room. A call from Daniel’s former boss—all charm and guilt-trip—tried to drag him back into unhealthy habits. It took timely intervention from Cassidy to deflect that problem for now.

But the day wasn’t entirely cruel as fate had it, one of the shop’s customers gave them a solid lead on the missing pens: a student named Vera James at nearby Laguna Bay College. It also brought a visit from Sheriff Roy Branham with questions about murder most mummified…

November 8, 2024. Moonlight Curiosities Antique Shop. Gloamstead, Alabama. Answering questions and questioning answers…

The sheriff’s serious expression told me everything I needed to know. It wasn’t going to be a fun conversation; life was about to take a hard right turn.

But I asked the obvious anyway.

“… before? What do you mean before he was mummified?” I asked warily.

“What happened?” Cassidy added, straightening slowly with a tense look.

Sheriff Branham’s dark eyes studied us before strolling across the shop, mouth pulled in a tight line. The tension at the corners of his eyes told a story I didn’t want to guess at. He joined us at the shop counter with a heavy expression.

“Well, mostly murder,” he said, deep voice drawing out the words.

“Before he was mummified?” I said incredulously. “It’s not like mummified covers up murder. Doesn’t that basically double-down on the whole thing?”

The ghost of a smile tugged at the sheriff’s lips.

“Oh, more or less,” he drawled. “Which is why I need to ask a few more questions to get some details pinned down. But before I get into all that, how are you two really doing? I’ve been meaning to come by and check on you both after what happened at your wedding.”

Cassidy met my eyes with a haunted, worried look that mirrored my own. Neither one of us were in a hurry to answer. The truth was, we’d kept it together after that night by sheer willpower and holding each other up. Just doing what two people sharing a life did in a crisis. Dorian asking us to track down those pens gave us something to focus on, instead of what happened. There’s something to be said for forward momentum with your partner by your side.

“Sheriff?” I said, rumpling the awkward silence. “I’d be lying if I said we were doing fine. It’s been…” My words staggered, losing the fight to make a coherent sentence. But Cassidy was right there, ready to back me up.

“Tough,” she said with a sigh. “Daniel’s had nightmares. I’ve had nightmares.” She shook her head slowly. “Walking away from something like that has been hard. But we needed to get the shop back in shape, and finish this job tracking down those antique pens for Mr. Callix. There were a couple of days I might’ve screamed if Daniel wasn’t here.”

I reached over, putting my hand on hers. “Same,” I said with a thin smile, then nodded at the sheriff. “So, we’re managing?”

Sheriff Branham pursed his lips, then inclined his head.

“Understood. Now, if you two need to talk about it…” He held up a hand before Cassidy or I could reply. “…I mean it, y’hear? I was good friends with your Uncle, Daniel, and still friends with your father, Cassidy. If you two need to talk it out, call me. Bend my ear.” His dark eyes shifted between us, stern and grandfatherly. “All right?”

“Yes, Sheriff,” Cassidy replied warmly. I echoed her words.

Sheriff Branham relaxed with a smile. “Good.” Then his smile stepped aside for a professional sigh. “Now for the other reason I came by…”

“The murder?” I prompted, then took a long breath. “How can we help?”

The sheriff pulled out a pocket notebook, flipping open to a page with a trim collection of questions and notes. He frowned at them, taking out a pen.

“Mostly clearing up any details you might remember,” Branham said. “Daniel? Last night, you said the person who attacked you was wearing a dark sheet or cloak and they flew at you? Start there. Fly how?”

I thought back over the fight in the attic, forcing back a shudder.

“Flew. At least, it looked like it.” I waved both hands, miming cloth flapping in the air. “Flying. Whatever they had on flapped like some dark sheet or hooded long coat in the wind. You know, like one of those cheap Halloween ghost decorations. Creepy as hell in a dark attic.”

Sheriff Branham nodded, writing. “Probably the point.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “Anything else?”

“Not sure what else to tell you,” I replied, shaking my head. “It was dark, and they went straight for my throat. There’s only one bulb in that attic and it wasn’t all that bright.” I pursed my lips, glowering at the middle distance and memory. “They were taller than me by a few inches, but hunched?” A sigh tumbled out of me. “That seems right. Other than that, I remember the really pale hand with the long fingers when they grabbed the attic opening on the way out.”

Branham nodded again, adding more notes. “Not a lot to work with, but it’ll have to do. Might be something we can get off the attic entrance.” He glanced up from his notebook. “Cassidy? You told my deputy that you were in the basement, then came upstairs. Still sure you didn’t see anything?”

She shook her head. “Just Mr. Callix in the hallway. He was as rattled as I was when we heard Daniel yelling. Like I told Deputy Keene, that’s when we raced upstairs—” Cassidy squinted at the countertop “—there was a window open on the first floor off the library. It wasn’t like that when I went into the basement.” She looked between myself and the sheriff. “I just assumed Mr. Callix opened it, but now when I think about it, that seems odd.”

Branham raised his eyebrows slightly. “Odd how?”

“Just odd,” she replied, lightly biting her lower lip, frowning. “A déjà vu feeling or something. Feels important now, but didn’t last night? Things are still a little blurry.”

The sheriff’s eyes narrowed, then added a few entries to his notes. “Hm, first floor off the library,” he muttered. “Thank you. Any odd smells? Sounds?”

“No, not that I remember,” Cassidy replied. “But I was running hard up the stairs as Daniel was yelling. I was really surprised when he said someone had attacked him, then raced out of the attic right before we got there. The second floor landing and stairs were empty. I didn’t see anyone.”

Sheriff Branham tapped the pen against his notebook. “Hm, good to know. Thank you both. That helps shift some things around.”

“You’re welcome, Sheriff. Wish I could remember more. It was just so dark in that attic,” I sighed.

Cassidy tapped a finger on the counter. “Sheriff? This is probably pretty nosy, and I understand if you can’t tell us, but how did Fred Spivey wind up mummified? How did he actually die?”

Branham closed his notebook, slowly putting it away in a pocket. He didn’t reply at first, just narrowed his eyes a little. Then he looked down as if rolling some thought over in his mind, before meeting our eyes.

“I probably shouldn’t say, but seeing as it’s you two…” He hooked his thumbs into his belt. “No one’s really sure how he wound up like dried up beef jerky. Though my CSI team has a few wild ideas with embalming fluid that they’re excited about.” He shrugged. “As for how he really died? Looks like he was hit in the back of the head.” Branham raised his eyebrows at me. “Might even have been with that fireplace poker.”

“Which I grabbed up and swung around like a baseball bat,” I said, blowing out a breath. “My fingerprints are all over the handle.”

The sheriff chuckled. “True, there’s that. You might’ve smudged a few things, might not. Come by tomorrow, and I’ll get someone to take your prints, so we can compare against anything pulled off the metal. Now, you didn’t see any blood on it, did you?”

I shook my head. “Sheriff, I was too rattled to notice anything about it, other than it was solid and kept whoever that was in the attic away from my neck.”

He chuckled softly. “Trust me, I understand. This case with the dead body in the attic is an odd one. Maybe not as odd as that serial killer who crashed your wedding, but it’s damn close.” He reached out and lightly patted the counter with a hand. “Well, I’d best be going. Oh, if you two come across anything about Fred Spivey while tracking down those missing fountain pens, you let me know, y’hear?”

“Of course,” I smiled.

“You know we will, Sheriff,” Cassidy added.

Branham grinned. “Good. You two have a good day.”

Cassidy and I were quiet long after the sheriff had left. The shop suddenly felt too small to contain recent events, from our wedding to the grisly discovery in the attic. Cassidy squeezed my hand, and I hers. The ticking of an old teak grandfather clock in the corner was deafening in the silence. I think even the dust went still. It was Cassidy who broke the silence first.

“The bloodleech attack, just all in a week? It’s been a lot,” she murmured, her emerald eyes meeting mine. Then she drew a long breath, holding harder to my hand as she smiled. “We got this.”

I gave her a soft, lopsided grin. “We absolutely do. I refuse to think life can out-weird us.”

Cassidy snorted a soft laugh, and I leaned on the checkout counter.

“Fred Spivey is something else that’s really weird.” I slowly drummed my fingers on the counter, pursing my lips. “It’s funny how he was murdered and mummified next to that safe in Dorian’s attic.”

Cassidy wrinkled her nose, almost shuddering. “It is. Coincidence?”

I shook my head. “You know, I really don’t believe in those.”

She looked off at the dust drifting through late afternoon sunbeams that slid in through the unbroken shop windows. I could see the wheels turning behind her eyes, her sharp mind working at a million miles an hour.

“Neither do I,” she admitted. “Especially since he was mummified.”

I squinted. “Okay. I’m not sure I follow. Sure, the fact that the guy got his head knocked in before someone dried him out like an old sponge is… well… disturbing, but—”

Cassidy shook her head, lightly waving a hand at me.

“No. That’s not what I meant,” she replied, then grimaced, tilting her head. “Not entirely. I mean the mummifying part.” She glanced over, searching my confused expression. “Fred Spivey was mummified, love. Withered. Just like Henry Vanil. That bookkeeper who owned one of Dorian’s fountain pens, remember?”

I slowly straightened, raising my eyebrows.

“Oh. Him. The one from Sleepy Hollow, New York, who was found withered with dark ink stains on his fingers,” I said, soft as a mourner. “But Fred Spivey didn’t have ink stains on his fingers.”

“Are you sure?” Cassidy replied with a level look, eyebrows knitted. “Really?”

I let the silence and the ticking grandfather clock answer for me.

“So,” I said slowly, my mouth dry. “Earlier we were talking about Uncle Elias’ safe? That you thought it was hidden in the stairwell to our apartment?”

Cassidy straightened her back, rubbing the top of a shoulder as her eyes brightened. A sure sign she wanted a distraction as badly as I did from all the death and doom.

“Right, yes.” She gave me a hopeful smile. “Want to close up early for lunch and go safe hunting, love?”

“Thought you’d never ask,” I grinned.

We put the ‘out for lunch’ sign in the last intact bay window, then headed for the stairs. The stairwell was—doors used as wall panels aside—brown and ordinary at first glance. But the longer I stood there staring, the more I realized it was interesting. Life had just kept me too distracted from paying attention until then.

The antique library doors were a golden teak with the rough edges smoothed away, blushing with a light chestnut stain. I remember my uncle taking great pains to sand, saw and fit them against the wall like so many puzzle pieces. He took care to restore each door to as close to the original condition as he could. The result was wooden walls that looked as soft as satin under the overhead lighting. Just seeing the result of his careful handiwork felt like a reassuring hug I’d overlooked.

I blinked when Cassidy touched my arm.

“What’s wrong?”

I shook my head, giving her a tiny smile. “Oh, nothing. Just remembering when my uncle first got these doors to put them in. So, you take the left side; I’ll take the right?”

“Deal.”

We moved between the doors, poking and prodding every crack, edge, or the faded marks left by forgotten hinges. Just for good measure, we even checked if any of the stairs were actually a lid for a storage compartment. No such luck, other than it reminded me, we needed to dust the stairs.

At the top of the staircase to our apartment over the shop, we stood together, frowning at everything.

“I was so sure it was here,” Cassidy breathed with a sigh. She waved a hand at the walls. “I mean, it just seemed like something your uncle would do. We pushed and searched every inch of these doors. I guess they really are just unusual wall panels.”

“Yeah, I guess.” With a sigh, I studied the walls once more. “Your idea did make a lot of sense.” I shrugged, rapping my knuckles on the nearest door twice. “At least they’re solid.”

The knothole I tapped, slid into the door with a soft click. A second later, the entire wall-panel door whispered a soft groan as it opened into the wall. Then a weak, yellowed light sputtered to life like a resurrected forgotten bulb, inviting us inside.

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. Daniel discovers both a dead man and a live attacker in the attic. A mad scramble sends his mysterious attacker running for the second floor with Daniel close behind—only to lose them seconds later. Outside, footprints hinted they slipped away unseen. Leaving Daniel, Cassidy, and Dorian to answer questions to the sheriff about the mummified dead man in the attic…

November 8, 2024. Moonlight Curiosities antique shop. Nothing like that feeling when you know you missed the obvious…

Yesterday stalked me so closely into tomorrow, I thought I had a second skin. It was close to noon before I shook it off with a cup of black coffee and a half-hearted inventory check.

Which worked—until it didn’t.

A few minutes later, it dawned on me that I had read the same entry for ‘1989 Calendar Plates’ five times. Groaning, I gave up, setting the tablet on the office desk.

“I need a break,” I muttered, taking a sip of coffee.

My eyes wandered to the open notebook next to me, then to the antique Waterman fountain pen in its wooden case. Overhead lights gleamed along the pen’s metal shell, turning it to fool’s gold. The pen’s decorative veins wavered like lines of fresh blood.

They were mesmerizing—a little hypnotic.

I dragged my eyes away. Feeling a mild headache, I rubbed my temples, then pulled over the open notebook. The current page was filled with almost everything Cassidy and I knew about the pens so far. A lot of notes—but not enough to explain why I’d come face to face with a dead body.

“A mummified, dead body,” I mused. “But the dead guy in Dorian’s attic might have nothing to do with the pens. It could’ve been a coincidence.”

But was it?

I picked up a pen—not the antique one—tapping it against the notebook. Then I wrote ‘Fred Spivey’, circling it with a question mark. After staring at the name, I added what else I remembered from the attic.

“There was the beige velvet cloth lining the safe, a bundle of papers, an ink stain, and old grocery store receipts.” I frowned over that last one, tapping the notebook again. “That ink stain meant the pen had been there, but why the grocery receipts?” I drew a slow breath, chewing that over. “What if they weren’t just receipts?”

I jumped when I felt hands settle on my shoulders.

“Hey, what’s this? Fred Spivey? Grocery receipts?” Cassidy asked, leaning over my shoulder. “Doesn’t look like inventory,” she teased.

“Well, this stuff with the pens and what happened in the attic wouldn’t leave me alone,” I said wryly. “Especially the dead man.” I shook my head, glancing up at her. “Other than being mummified, it feels odd that he was right there next to that safe.”

Cassidy nodded, idly massaging my shoulders. “Yeah, it does. Mummified…” She paused, looking into the middle distance with concern.

“What is it?”

She shrugged. “Not sure. It reminds me of something, and it bothers me I can’t think of what. It’s from when I was little.” Cassidy shook her head, sighing. “Wish I could remember.” Then her green eyes sparkled. “Oh! Hey. Remember we talked about your uncle having a safe?”

I turned in the chair, halfway facing her.

“You found one?” It was hard to keep the hope of sorting out this mess from my voice.

Cassidy grinned, squeezing my shoulders.

“Maybe?” she replied. “I think so, but I’m not sure. We’ve checked this place from top to bottom. But your uncle loved puzzles. So I looked around again this morning, and I think it might be in the stairwell leading upstairs.”

I frowned, picturing the dull wooden stairway with its brown walls. It practically screamed boring.

“There? Can’t be. It’s just a stairwell,” I replied. “How?”

Her grin widened.

“The walls.” Cassidy pushed the notebook aside to perch on the edge of the desk, facing me. “Think about it, love. Your uncle mostly helped build this place—literally. It’s an enclosed, interior stairwell, but the walls are made of antique doors.”

I turned that over in my mind. The walls were all six-paneled, chestnut privacy doors that my uncle once told me came from an old library. He said they had too much history to let rot, so he used them in the stairwell like wood paneling. I pursed my lips.

“Cassie, I’m not sure. We could be reaching here.”

She inclined her head. “We could. But think about it. Sure, the doorknobs were plugged with wood, but what a great place to hide a secret door—right in plain sight.”

My eyebrows reached for my hairline at the implication.

“So, if one of those doors is an actual working door—” I shook my head. “That’s Uncle Elias’ sense of humor right there. But if there is a room there, it’d have to be pretty narrow.”

Cassidy shrugged. “True. But if it’s just for a safe, does it have to be that big?”

I thought back to the hidden safe in Dorian’s attic.

“You know, probably not—”

My phone rang, scattering my thoughts like loose leaves. I pulled it from my pocket and went still at the caller ID on the screen; a cold chill teased my spine.

It was my former boss, Kevin Thorpe.

Cassidy’s expression melted into a dark thundercloud the second she saw his name. I exchanged an uneasy look with her, then tapped the speaker button as I set the phone on the desk between us.

“Dan! How’s it going?” Kevin’s voice rang through the phone, oozing charm.

“Fine, Kevin. What—”

“Great!” he pushed on. “I read about that mess with the serial killer. Nuts, right? The news media said your little shop got wrecked. Anyway, look. We’ve got some system documentation that needs some details. Also, we could use a second pair of hands for a little system stability.” There was a microsecond pause before he added, “I mean, given everything going on, I figured you could probably use the real income, right? Just to get back on your feet.”

“No,” Cassidy hissed low enough for the phone to miss it. “Daniel, no. That’s what he said last time, when he guilted you into working six days a week, thirteen-hour days.”

I rubbed my eyes, hands trembling as workaholic memories warred with emotion. An old reflex tried to kick in—just say yes, fix the problem, and move on. Only the problems never stayed fixed.

“Kevin…” I paused. My voice sounded ragged in my ears. After I swallowed, I tried again. “Kevin, I appreciate what you’re saying, but no. We’ve got too much going on right now…”

“Really?” he said, sliding into a gap between my words. “Okay… well. Hey, how about instead of no, why don’t you sleep on it? Dig a little deeper into the idea. Talk it over with Cassidy. Run the numbers, right?”

Cassidy softly punched the desk, eyes blazing.

I was saved by the shop’s front door before I could fumble another rejection. Cassidy swept up my phone, giving me a quick kiss on the side of my head.

“Go be charming,” she whispered, then took the call off speaker.

“Kevin? Hi,” she said, voice all rose-thorns dipped in honey. “Yeah, this is Cassidy. So, we should talk…”

I knew a potential verbal flaying when I heard one, so I eased out from behind the desk and left the office in search of customers. Our shop isn’t large, so I tracked them down pretty easily. One gentleman was interested in the antique books, while two ladies were inspecting the lamps and Mason jars. Two of the customers I didn’t know, but I recognized one of the ladies right away.

“Mrs. Adelyne, it’s good to see you again,” I said, smiling. “Thank you for the squash casserole, by the way. It was fantastic.”

Naomi Adelyne beamed, adjusting her wire-rimmed glasses along the thin bridge of her nose. I swore she blushed. But behind that, I saw a tremor of nerves in her piercing hazel eyes.

That got my attention. Mrs. Adelyne—never ‘Ms.’ despite being a widow—was usually the picture of proper. She was always impeccable from posture and speech, to clothing and the practical bun of her gray-brown hair. Only today, some of that practicality looked a bit frayed around the edges. Her hands tightly gripped the small blue purse in front of her, like a tiny cloth shield. Almost as if what she wanted to say warred with her inner nature.

“Mrs. Adelyne? What’s wrong?”

Her mouth pressed into a flat line before she let out a thin sigh. After a sharp look to either side, she leaned a little closer, voice hushed.

“Daniel, I’ve a delicate matter to talk about. I didn’t want to bother you, but my Issac said you or Cassidy could help me like your uncle did.” The worried look in her eyes flickered like a poked fire. She snapped open her purse, digging out a small, dirt-stained, gray canvas bag, heavy with something inside. Mrs. Adelyne held out the tiny, rosemary-scented bag to me. “My favorite pen is acting up. I just know it’s haunted.”

The bag did hold a pen—just not the one Cassidy and I were after. It was an antique Sheaffer ballpoint pen, not a fountain pen. A blue-black stain decorated the tip of the sterling silver shell. I glanced from the pen back to its owner with a hopefully comforting smile.

“Well, sure looks like it could be leaking. Come up to the front counter, and I’ll… er… see what I can do about the leaky spirits.”

Relief flooded her face. “Thank you so much, Daniel. I wasn’t sure, but Issac said you could handle it.”

Cassidy was there, my phone flat in front of her, arching an eyebrow at the two of us. I held up the canvas bag.

“Mrs. Adelyne needs some help with a leaky pen,” I explained. “She said Uncle Elias used to help with this.”

“Both with the spirit bothering it and the ink,” Mrs. Adelyne added primly, stopping at the end of the counter.

I swapped a questioning look with Cassidy, who replied with a faint shrug. It seemed Uncle Elias got up to a lot we didn’t know about. I glanced at my phone. Cassidy gave a slight shake of her head and a very pleased grin.

“Later. Kevin’s got a lot to think about,” she said in a low voice, then plucked the bag from my fingers. “So, let’s see what we’ve got.”

“Excuse me?” It was one of the other two customers. He was a broad-shouldered older man, in his mid-50s, wearing a Laguna Bay College sweatshirt and jeans. In his hands were a pair of antique Mason jars and a 1938 cookbook. His slightly weathered face had the sunny disposition of someone used to smiling.

Cassidy lightly touched my arm. “I’ll help Mrs. Adelyne, Daniel. You help Professor Barnes.” She gave the man a grin. “Good to see you again, Professor.”

Professor Barnes tipped an invisible hat. “Likewise.”

That’s when I remembered him. Cassidy had mentioned a Halcomb Barnes she knew from Laguna Bay College in the next town over, who was fond of vintage cookbooks.

“Find what you were after, Professor?” I asked as I rang everything up. He shrugged.

“Maybe. That cookbook might have the fig preserves recipe I’m after. We’ll see.” He gestured to the back office. “Well, that’s a familiar sight. Looks like a fountain pen I gave to a student last semester.”

I paused mid-tap on the tablet screen and glanced into the office where I’d left the antique Waterman pen on the desk.

“That pen?” I asked, surprised. Hope rose up, shooting fireworks off inside me, while logic yelled to keep the noise down. It was a long shot that would be one of the missing pens. Pen makers shamelessly copied each other’s styles, both then and now.

Barnes nodded. “At least one a lot like it. Why?”

I shrugged. “That was part of a four-pen set. Cassie and I are chasing down two that are missing.”

A woman, the third customer I’d noticed before, tapped the professor on the arm. Her blue eyes flicked between myself and the professor, before settling on the professor’s two Mason jars. With a bright smile, she brushed a strand of raven-black hair with a snow-white streak behind an ear.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, tapping one of the Mason jars, eyes lingering on the glass. “Just where did you find those? I’ve a collection, and that’s the style I’m looking for.”

Professor Barnes smiled, face warm as sunshine. He pointed back across the rows of shelves, over to the far wall near the stairs up.

“Oh, well. I saw plenty like this on that last aisle. At least ten.”

I nodded, bagging the jars and cookbook for the professor. “Ma’am? If you don’t see what you’re after, just let me know. That’s only a part of what we have in stock.”

The woman beamed. “Thank you!”

Once she hurried off, Professor Barnes collected his purchase, then inclined his head at the Waterman pen.

“Daniel, is it? Well, if you’re looking to track down those pens, the student I gave one to was Vera James. She’s still taking classes at Laguna College. I should see her on Monday. Want I should ask her to call you?”

I handed him a business card, not wanting to count this as good luck yet—just hope for some. “Please, if you don’t mind.”

Barnes pocketed the card. “Sure thing. See you later, Daniel. Give my best to Cassie?”

I nodded, smiling. “Will do.”

A few minutes later, more Mason jars were bought, and Mrs. Adelyne was mostly satisfied her pen was at rest for the moment. Now, with a lack of customers, I filled Cassidy in on what Professor Barnes had said.

“Do you think it could be one of the pens?” she asked skeptically.

I glanced through the office door at the Waterman pen. It might have been my imagination, but the pen looked slightly out of place, as if it’d been moved when I wasn’t looking. I frowned at the decorative red veins along its surface, glimmering a dark red in the filtered sunlight.

“Maybe?” I replied. “We know two pens found their way here to Gloamstead. What if one was taken from a safe and sold?”

It was Cassidy’s turn to frown as she slouched against the counter.

“Seems weird to sell one after all the doom, gloom, and ‘burn it’ in those hidden messages we found.” She reached over, gently clasping my hand. “But still, stranger things have happened.”

As if on cue, the front bell rang and Sheriff Branham stepped inside, pulling off his hat.

“Stranger things? That’s one way to put it,” he said. “You two have a minute? We need to talk about that dead body you found, and what happened before he was mummified.”

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. Clues from the store-all and a visit to the old Rawls’ home led to Cassidy and Daniel searching the house with Dorian’s help. The trio split up, each taking a part of the house with Daniel in the attic. One there, among boxes and dressmaker dummies, he finds a safe—and a little bit more than he expected…

November 7, 2024. The old Rawls’ home next to Crescent Edge Cemetery—it’s all fun and antiques until you find a dead body…

Time froze like a deer in headlights as I stared, nose-to-nose, with the man’s mummified face. Everything shattered back to normal the moment my nerves rebelled.

“Gah—!”

I rolled off the body with a shriek, skittering backwards over rotten rugs to escape the corpse. Before I knew it, I’d crashed against the attic wall as the dark shape flying across the room found me. I jerked to one side as pale hands thrust out of the shadows, clawing at the air where my neck had been.

The dark shape hissed like a boiler’s dying breath.

I scrambled on all fours to anywhere but there. Then my right hand found an old fireplace poker. I rolled over, swinging the metal bar with a snarl, hitting something solid. A yelp and another hiss followed. We stumbled apart, both of us tripping over magazines and more in the dark. I fell one way; the thing went another, as a lantern with its candlelight-yellow glow clanked down between us.

The shadowy figure leaped up, but I was a second faster to my feet, shoving a stack of boxes into their face. That earned me another hiss before it rushed for the open attic entrance.

“Dorian! Cassidy!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, racing after the thing.

I was too slow. The dark shape flowed through the attic opening, dropping to the floor below like a forgotten sheet. In the dim light of the attic, I caught a quick glimpse of a pale hand—thin, with fingers a bit too long for normal.

“Cassidy!” I bellowed again. Tripping over more magazines, I managed a clumsy run for the attic opening, brandishing the fireplace poker.

I frantically climbed down the ladder, missing two steps before I dropped less than gracefully to the floor. Landing in a crouch, I spun around, gulping air, iron poker at the ready. At the same time, Cassidy and Dorian stampeded up the stairs from the first floor.

“Daniel!” Cassidy yelped, racing over with bat claws extended. “What is it? Where is it?” Protectively holding onto my arm, she scanned the hallway for anything to fight.

To my surprise, Dorian looked upset as well. He hadn’t melted into the full nightmare of a bloodleech’s natural appearance, but his eyes had taken on the solid obsidian orbs of one.

“Attic. Person,” I wheezed as I winced, feeling the bandaged cuts on my arms and shoulder sting like all hell. “Did you… did you see them?”

“No,” Dorian replied with the hint of a low snarl.

“They were tall, wearing like a black coat or something. They attacked me when I found a wall safe,” I said, standing up straight—which turned out to be a bad idea. Aches rippled along my shoulder and back.

The hallway and its vintage decor wanted to swirl around me like ice cream in a blender. Not that I have anything against frozen desserts, but ice cream and murder just didn’t seem to mix. I stumbled, but Cassidy caught me before I fell over.

“Hold still,” she whispered, immediately checking the back of my neck.

“What?” I breathed.

“Checking for bloodleech bites,” she replied with a brief side-eye at Dorian. “You’re a little pale and dizzy.”

Dorian either ignored the implication or was too focused on an invader in his new home.

“Where did they run to?” He frowned, voice predator-soft.

“Not sure,” I gasped. “I hit them with this fireplace poker and they dropped something before they jumped down out of the attic. If you didn’t see them on the stairs, where did they go?”

“Both of you stay here,” Dorian said quietly. “I’ll check the rooms here, then outside. It’ll just be a moment.”

Satisfied there wasn’t a telltale ring of bite marks on the back of my neck, Cassidy turned me around in a hard hug. Then she placed her still-furred hands on either side of my face, searching my eyes. I could feel the worry rolling off her in waves.

“If Dorian’s touched you…”

I reached up, putting my free hand on hers, shaking my head.

“He hasn’t. I just know he hasn’t,” I gently replied.

Worry laced her expression. “I’m not so sure. Ambushing someone in a dark attic sounds very bloodleech to me.”

I gave her a lopsided smile. “Yeah, but you once told me bloodleeches loved drama and performance. This felt more like cornering a feral cat in a bathtub. I don’t believe it was him.”

She snorted, touching her forehead to mine. “Okay, fine. That’s a good point. So if it wasn’t Dorian, who was it?”

“I don’t know… yet,” I whispered.

The aforementioned bloodleech returned a moment later, looking more human and twice as concerned.

“No one’s around. I saw where they came in, and where they left. But there’s no sign of them now.” His brow furrowed. “Daniel, are you hurt? Whatever you need, I’ll get it, or call for it.”

Cassidy scowled at the hallway, as if willing whoever attacked me to show their face. I lightly waved a hand at Dorian.

“No. Just a little winded from getting scared half to death.” I drew a long breath. “But that dead body in your attic is going to need the sheriff and a coroner.”

“What?” Cassidy blinked at me, then leveled a hard look at Dorian. “What did you do?”

To his credit, Dorian looked as horrified as I’d felt when I was practically kissing the corpse.

“Nothing,” he replied, pulling out his phone. “Though while I’ve enjoyed burying a body or two in the backyard during my time, this is something best left for the sheriff.” Dorian held up his phone, raising his eyebrows. “If you’ll excuse me. Please make yourselves at home in the kitchen downstairs.”

We headed down and settled into Dorian’s kitchen, helping ourselves to water and a delightful lack of dead bodies. Sadly, drama was still on the menu.

Dorian had no sooner called the sheriff, than they arrived in force a few minutes later. Three cars pulled up outside, escorting an ambulance, and a CSI truck. They descended on the house with lethal precision, invading the attic. Radio chatter hummed through the night air like evening bees out for that one last flower.

After that, they cornered Dorian in one room, Cassidy and I in the kitchen. Then came the questions—a lot of questions.

It took nearly an hour before that wound down.

The deputy taking our statements, and giving a barely veiled interrogation, studied her notebook carefully. Deputy Marla Keene was—if nothing else—professional.

I’d spoken with her a few times, such as at my uncle’s funeral. She was polite, straightforward, and deadly serious as a deputy. Brown hair pulled back in a bun, gray eyes level—the kind that didn’t blink first—she was the portrait of solid and unflappable.

“Shadowy figure in possibly a dark overcoat. Long, thin white fingers.” Deputy Keene read from her notes. “You’re sure you’ve never met the deceased before tonight?”

“No,” Cassidy replied. “Never.”

“Not until I nearly bumped noses with him,” I lightly quipped. The deputy didn’t look amused, so I nodded in a limp, sagely fashion, before drinking some water.

Deputy Keene hummed at me with a deadpan expression. “I see. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne. If we’ve more questions, we’ll follow up.”

The kitchen door opened with a casual creak, interrupting what else the deputy was about to say. Night air, rich with the earthy scent of damp grass, wandered in like a loitering ghost.

Sheriff Roy Branham stepped through the door with the unhurried calm of a man who’d seen more than most. Someone who’d spent thirty years walking into bad situations and rarely had to raise his voice. In less time than it took to cross the threshold, I noticed his eyes wander the room—memorizing it at a glance, before settling on us.

“If for no other reason than because attics don’t grow bodies on their own,” he said with the ghost of a wry smile.

The sheriff was a broad-shouldered, dusky-skinned man somewhere in his early fifties, with close-cut hair touched with gray at the temples. My Uncle Elias had spoken highly of the sheriff more than once. Despite the damp evening outside, Sheriff Branham’s uniform was still mostly immaculate.

I grinned a little. Sheriff Branham’s easygoing manner seemed to seep tension out of the air, deflating it like a balloon.

“No, I suppose not. What about the lantern that the person dropped?” I asked. “If you need it appraised, we could take a look?”

The sheriff frowned a little, rubbing his chin. “Might do that. But I’d rather my CSI boys look at it first to see if we can get a better handle on who was up there.”

Dorian appeared behind the sheriff, who didn’t seem the least bit bothered. I almost envied that calm the sheriff had—almost, but not quite.

“Well, I can say it didn’t belong to my contractor, best that I know,” Dorian casually admitted. “Fred brought plenty of flashlights and other tools, never a lantern.”

Deputy Keene went stone-faced, and I thought I saw Sheriff Branham swallow a tiny sigh. I got the impression Dorian wasn’t supposed to casually stroll in, talking about the dead man like that.

“Fred?” Cassidy asked carefully.

“Fred Spivey,” Dorian explained, either ignoring the sheriff and the deputy’s mild frustration or just didn’t care. “Remodeling contractor I hired from over in Craigbrook down the road.”

Deputy Keene cleared her throat, getting to her feet. She snapped her small notebook closed like a mousetrap.

“Well, thank you all. Like I said, we’ll be in touch with more questions.”

As the officers made their way out of the kitchen, Sheriff Branham paused with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Oh, by the way,” he asked. “Did Fred Spivey mention that safe in your attic, Mr. Callix?”

“No, not a word.” Dorian replied with a thin smile. “If he had, I’ve no doubt he’d have told me. Would’ve been a good reason to up his fee for remodeling.”

The sheriff lightly tapped the nearby counter, raising an eyebrow at Cassidy and myself.

We swapped a brief look. She gave me a tiny, resigned nod.

“We didn’t know, but suspected,” I said. “Uncle Elias had a set of antique fountain pens come through his shop a few years back. Mr. Callix hired us to track down where they went. This house used to belong to one of my uncle’s antique pickers.”

Sheriff Branham nodded slowly. “Meredith Rawls, I remember. So you came here to see if the pens were here?”

Cassidy clasped her hands around her glass of water. “That or see if there was a record left behind about them.”

The sheriff glanced around the room again, then at the ceiling.

“Mr. Callix, is all the work you wanted done on the first floor?”

“It is,” Dorian replied, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Doors and other things.”

Branham hummed at that.

“Odd, Spivey was upstairs in the attic when the work was down here.” The sheriff smiled at us and Dorian. “No matter. Mr. Callix? I’m sorry in advance, but my CSI boys will be tromping through your attic a good bit. Also, I’ll need you to stay in town in case we’ve more questions.”

“Well, of course,” Dorian replied, inclining his head.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne, you’re at Elias’ old shop?” When we nodded, he gave us that warm smile again. “Good. I’ll be by tomorrow or the next, likely with more questions. All of you have a good night.”

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. A search through the shop’s archived paper records in the Simmons Store-All turned up more than allergies and a history lesson. Instead, Daniel and Cassidy uncovered a decades-old code left by Daniel’s uncle, Elias Hawthorne. A code that concealed a hidden journal entry specifically about the pens. There was also a mentions of two safes; one with Elias and another with a deceased woman named Meredith Rawls. Not wanting to waste time, they out hoping to search the abandoned house that night, only find the old Rawls’ house not so abandoned…

November 7, 2024. The old Rawls’ home beside Crescent Edge Cemetery—where “safe” had always been a lie…

Cassidy and I sat in the car, staring at the house’s new owner, standing on his porch. We swapped an uneasy look, then eased out of the car as if a predator lurked nearby. Technically one did, but neither of us was going to tell him that. We crossed the yard, then climbed the dingy white steps as the evening wind rattled the bare branches.

Dorian Callix, dressed in his usual gray and white clothes save for a windbreaker, filled half the open front doorway with his thin, manicured frame. The man—or really a bloodleech—stood as sharp as a fall shadow, cutting the night under a sickly waning moon.

“If I knew I’d have company, I’d have put a kettle on,” he drawled. “But you’ve come at a good time. Contractors have left for the day. Less noise around.”

Cassidy drew a deep breath. It looked like she bit down on three tart replies just to pin down the one she wanted.

“Oh? I’m surprised you didn’t eat the contractors,” she replied with a brittle smile. “Less payroll. Fewer witnesses.”

Dorian touched two fingers to his forehead in a mock-salute, rolling out a genuine laugh.

“My dear Mrs. Hawthorne, some of us don’t go around eating the help. It’s already hard enough to find them in the first place. Besides, it’s sometimes a rather bland meal. Comes out tasting like sheetrock installs and taxes. I’d rather just enjoy the company.” He stepped away, gesturing inside with a too-polite nod. “Do come in.”

It was an old Victorian home that practically dripped with history. From floor to ceiling, she was a grand lady from another age. Dust outlines on the wallpaper were ghosts of paintings that once stood watch over the entry. Past the foyer, an elegant staircase wound upstairs; freshly polished mahogany banisters gleamed with age.

“What do you think? 1890s?” I whispered to Cassidy.

“Maybe even 1910. Lots of crawlspaces to hide things,” she mumbled, eyeing the ceiling trim.

I nodded thoughtfully as Dorian led the way.

A short walk later, we arrived at what I assumed was the library. This was a guess based on the staggering amount of books—some shelved, some still boxed—stacked against the walls. Two antique brass floor lamps painted the room in a deceptively warm glow, considering who owned them. A vintage Aubusson rug with a dusty gold and green garden pattern added to the mood.

Dorian sank into a cracked brown leather armchair that looked on the precipice between too-new and falling apart. Cassidy and I claimed a nearby red velvet loveseat that whimpered under our weight. The thing shed tattered thread like a nervous, long-haired cat.

“So.” Dorian drew the word like a bow over a violin. When he crossed one thin leg over the other, I half-expected him to form a finger pyramid like some movie villain. “Daniel, Cassidy, good to see you both. You’re looking healthy. How are those scratches? Healing up?”

Cassidy stiffened on the loveseat next to me, while I gently massaged the bandages on one of my forearms. Conversations about our recent near-murder didn’t rate high on our small-talk meter. We answered at the same time.

“Fine,” Cassidy said, clipped.

“Getting there,” I sighed. “If you don’t mind, Mr. Callix…”

He waved a hand at my manners. “Now, now. Dorian, if you please. No need for the formality.”

I stretched a smile over my fatigue.

“Dorian… sorry to say, this isn’t a social call. We’re here about the pens.”

The man’s eyes glimmered like polished coins. “Oh? Do tell. I’m all ears.”

Cassidy raised her eyebrows, so I jumped in with the explanation.

“We’ve been doing some digging about the ink pens. So far their age checks out, but they’ve got some sketchy history.”

“Sketchy?” Dorian looked pained. “You mean they’re fake?”

I sat back, shaking my head, hands raised in light defense.

“No, they’re real. It’s just that a good amount of people who owned them have died pretty badly.”

It was as if I’d told Dorian it was Halloween and he could have all the candy. His grin was all morbid sunshine.

“Delightful. I love items with a colorful history.” He waved a hand at the half-filled shelves of old and new books. “They’ll have a lovely home here. Are there any leads on the missing pens? I trust there’s something, since it brought you both out tonight.”

“Some,” Cassidy said. “We’ve found some old purchase records, with dates, locations, and more. We’ll write up the details for your records, but…” she glanced at me for support “…this address came up as one of the recent locations.”

“Here?” He actually looked surprised.

I picked up the beat, following Cassidy’s lead. Quickly, I edited down my mental notes to the key points that didn’t include my uncle.

“Here,” I echoed. “The pens changed hands from one estate sale after another. We’ll document it all, but a few receipts pointing to the pens’ whereabouts brought us here—maybe in a hidden vault or safe. Have any of your contractors mentioned one?”

Dorian swapped his theatrical expression for a contemplative frown, staring holes in the rug.

“No, not a word,” he replied thoughtfully. “They’ve been roaming the halls for two days now, getting ready to make small improvements.” Dorian indicated the library doors with a nod. “Replacing a few doors where the frames had rotted, that sort of thing. No one mentioned a safe.”

Then he grinned and clapped his hands together.

“But you’ve stirred my curiosity about these pens, so we can always look around now.” His grin turned sharper. “I do so love a good hunt. Keeps the mind sharp.”

Cassidy stiffened slightly next to me on the loveseat—eyes tight, lips thinned to a sharp line. To say she didn’t trust Dorian was like saying water was wet—not that I blamed her. Still, his excitement was contagious, even if it suggested wet cellars and knives in the dark.

More than that, I had an uneasy feeling about these fountain pens. That they were more than just some valuable antiques—though I couldn’t say why.

I gave Dorian a polite smile.

“A hunt? Yes, it does. Since you’ve had contractors here, could you point to any likely odd spaces? I’m used to a vault being in a study or office. Places like that.”

“Don’t leave out mausoleums,” Dorian offered with a wink. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I know just where to start—the back hallway.”

I couldn’t tell if that was a joke or a warning—so I decided on both; that seemed safer.

Dorian led us through a set of interconnected parlors with antique furniture waiting for guests. But for now, they’d been temporarily claimed by stacks of cardboard boxes. Dorian breezed through with the self-assured grace of nobility showing off his domain.

“Oh, pardon the boxes. Empties had to go somewhere,” he said with a limp wave. “Now that I think about it, one contractor told me the previous owners were fond of stashing valuables in odd places. One story said they hid a cousin in the attic for two years during prohibition. Rum runner, supposedly.”

I squinted at Dorian’s back, then glanced to Cassidy for help.

“How dramatic,” she deadpanned.

Dorian tossed a smooth grin over his shoulder.

“Isn’t it? All part of the charm of why I bought the place.”

The back hall was more than just that; it was the spine of the first floor. Faded wildflower wallpaper echoed a different era of decor. It was an odd match for the Victorian wall sconces that had been adapted for lightbulbs. The delicate curves of the light fixtures held a blush of rust, while the bulbs gave off a moth-dusted golden light. A glow most haunted houses would’ve killed for.

“Given the hour, and that I’m dying to know about this safe, we’ll cover more ground if we split up,” Dorian suggested.

Cassidy clenched her jaw slightly—and really, I did, too—but Dorian didn’t show a hint of malice. Just the eager energy of someone who enjoyed this too much.

“You do know the house better than we do,” Cassidy relented with a soft breath.

“True,” I agreed, giving her a reassuring smile. “It won’t take that long.”

She gave me a tiny nod, but I saw her eyes flick to the bandages on my forearms. Memories of our wounds stung more than the cuts themselves. Still, she smiled, lightly brushing a hand on my upper arm.

“I’ll take the cellar,” she said with a shrug. “Even if there’s not enough light, I navigate in the dark pretty well.”

“Good idea,” Dorian replied with an excited, slightly feral smile. “I’ll check the first and second floors. It might be behind a painting. Wouldn’t that be just elegant?”

“That leaves the attic,” I said, glancing up. “Is there an attic for the first floor, then another for the second?”

“No, just the one,” Dorian replied, pointing at the stairs. “It’s big enough to make the library look small. Access is on the second floor. I’ll show you, then be back to escort you to the basement, Mrs. Hawthorne.”

“Thank you,” Cassidy replied dryly.

She slid her hand down my arm and gently squeezed my hand. I gave her another reassuring smile.

“I promise I’ll be careful.”

Cassidy raised her eyebrows.

“Extra careful, please? You’re still vintage near-mint, and only slightly scuffed. I’d like to keep you that way.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I grinned.

Dorian led the way. It turned out the attic access was a few feet down the second-floor hall, between a pair of bedrooms. As I grabbed the cord to pull down the hidden ladder, Dorian held up a hand.

“Mr. Hawthorne, a word? I know you and your wife have little reason to trust me. My… predecessor? As I’ve said, she made quite the mess here in Gloamstead. I’ve no intention of repeating that mistake.”

I studied him for a moment. Beneath that polished, eerily too-perfect appearance, I thought I heard some sincerity behind his words. With a nod, I drew a long breath.

“Dorian…” I paused, pulling words together. “Your predecessor literally tried to murder us a week ago. Just bear in mind that’s made us a bit skittish.”

“Understandable,” he said lightly. “I’d love to find a peaceful middle ground between the three of us.” Dorian gestured to the attic. “Good hunting among the dressmaker dummies.”

Honest conversation or not, I still waited until he returned downstairs before I headed up the ladder.

The attic was as advertised. It was long, running the length of the house, with a bare, gabled ceiling. Light from below was a column of safety until I pulled a nearby string. With a click, a single bulb pushed out the darkness, which shoved right back. The place was like a cluttered cathedral of memories.

A thin, damp heat held the air hostage while the dust of decades past clung to everything. What didn’t smell like stale paper was scented by sour insulation. Boxes were misshapen columns of cardboard crowding decades-old magazines in uneven stacks. I gave a trio of neglected dressmaker dummies facing a corner the side-eye before I stepped deeper into the gloom.

I tried to be patient as I searched, but passing seconds pricked at me like sewing needles. Two rounds across the attic left me grimy and frustrated. I scrubbed my hand over my face, then tried to brush dust out of my hair. It was a failed effort.

“Now wait,” I muttered. “Think. My uncle knew something was off about the pens to the point he made that code in his ledgers.” Putting my hands on my hips, I looked around me—really looked. “He wouldn’t have agreed to put them literally in a safe, but he would’ve left a hint how to find them.”

I narrowed my eyes at the attic, willing it to give up the prize. It didn’t, but I did get an idea.

“The magazines.” I shook my finger at the dusty stacks of old Alabama Heritage issues, hurrying over to them. “I bet they reused the ledger codes.”

I knelt down, brushing years of grime aside, and sorted them by year until I reached the one I was looking for.

“October 1977,” I muttered.

Four pages in, I found what I hoped for—handwritten letters and numbers in the margin. I grinned and got to work. Ten issues and several notes later, I decoded the hidden passage.

“Twelfth brick from the left. East wall. Attic.” I frowned at the last part. “Mind the wheels?” I glanced at the east brick wall just outside the sole lightbulb’s island of light. “What wheels?”

Frowning, I crossed the attic and counted bricks.

The brick I’d tracked down wasn’t any different from the others nearby. I ran my fingers over it, then along the mortar. Partway down, my fingers touched metal. The phone’s flashlight glinted off a series of four small wheels—a simple combination lock. I scrubbed at the grime, exposing their numbers.

“Combination lock wheels.” I shook my head in disbelief. “But what’s the combination?”

I tried a couple of obvious combinations first. Nothing. Then I gave the wall a crooked smile.

“No. It couldn’t be. That’s way too easy.”

Carefully, I pushed at the dials. Age held them in place, but they finally gave under my thumb. Slowly, I set the dials to ten, four, nineteen, and seventy-seven.

“October 4th, 1977. The date he got the pens from Meredith.”

A soft click replied before a four-foot-square section of fake brick separated from the wall. Inside, there were folded documents, even grocery receipts, all sitting on top of a beige velvet cloth marred by a pooled ink stain. Its wet edges glistened faintly in the light.

“One of the pens was here, but…”

A soft creak of wood whispered across the attic. I heard the sound of a footstep, followed by the hint of breath.

“Dorian?” I asked, turning around. “Cassie?”

The air tasted faintly metallic—like pennies and old ink.

Something dark peeled off one shadow and flowed to the next across the room. A faint glow—no more than the desperate light from a feeble candle—wobbled in the air. The dust-choked air shifted, disturbed by something moving too fast. Then a lean figure rushed out from behind the boxes straight for me.

“What the…” I yelled.

Stumbling back, I ducked a low rafter, tripping over my own feet. The figure flitted across the room like a wild sheet of darkness. I fell hard—landing next to old rugs and something that gave with a dry, brittle crunch.

It wasn’t a rug.

A face stared back at me.

Leathered skin was stretched tight over bone—hollow eyes inches from mine.

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. Suspicious deal done, Daniel and Cassidy dove into tracking down the history of the pens. It took four days of false leads but a faint breadcrumb of information appeared—none of it pleasant. A trail of previous owners having met untimely, or suspicious, ends came to light. This collection of clues, estate sales, and more traced through Moonlight Curiosities, suggesting more might be found in the shop’s old records. Namely ones tucked away in a Store-All near a Bayou at the edge of town…

November 7, 2024. Simmons Store-All near the Leatherdown Bayou. Unit 45. Buried in boxes and a few memories…

As it turned out, dumpster diving through old antique shop records did have a lot less death involved. But there were still plenty of bitter-smelling, yellowed papers with an airborne invasion of brown dust. It was a powdery, dry grit that occasionally billowed out of boxes filled with my uncle’s cryptic journals and accounting ledgers.

We headed to the Simmons store-all rental unit late the next day after we’d closed shop. The store-all unit was modern and indoors, complete with a good air filtration system. Still, yellow-brown dust was everywhere. It stubbornly fogged the chilly air with a musty scent from decades past. So, after about an hour, I figured the nearby air filters had given up and left in disgust.

Cassidy set aside a stack of papers, then sneezed so hard she practically bounced off the floor where she sat.

“God,” she snorted, then sneezed twice more. “It’s like inhaling history. I’m just not built for this.”

I handed her my handkerchief, then promptly sneezed four times in a row.

“You’re not the only one,” I chuckled dryly after a rough snort. “But hey, you’ve got echolocation if the lights go out,” I teased.

She shot me a perturbed look—sharp hearing and sheet metal walls never mixed. With a light wave of her hand, she indicated the storage unit.

A tinny, country western tune echoed down the lonely, near-dark hallway outside our unit. It gave the empty store-all hallway bad horror movie vibes I wanted nothing to do with. I leaned on the current stack of boxes between us.

“Okay, that’s fair. Metal walls with a country music beat do not a good echolocation moment make,” I relented. Then I gave her a faint smile. “Hey, at least the worst here is dust swarms, not murder ink.”

Cassidy snorted from the dust and my limp humor.

“I’ll give you that one, but the music could still be better.”

As if insulted, the ceiling speakers in the too-empty hallway changed to something involving cowboys and pickup trucks both being sad in beer. Maybe the beer was just sad, I wasn’t sure. Laughing, we continued to search.

I took another break an hour later. My hands had turned ghostly gray from forgotten dust, and every ledger page just looked like a paper cut waiting to happen.

Cassidy had settled cross-legged in the middle of the storage room with a Midori travel notebook. The book was open in her lap, with journals and papers arranged around her in a rough semi-circle. Green, cloth-bound ledgers were stacked off to her right.

She took notes with a sort of monkish discipline, scowling over every page. Every so often, she let out a “huh” or “interesting” over something she’d found.

Progress? Maybe. But perseverance eventually paid off as I tapped an open journal balanced precariously on a stack of boxes.

“Found something here in a journal,” I said slowly.

I cleared dust from my throat.

“October 4, 1977. Got two Waterman fountain pens from Meredith today,” I read aloud. “Amber tortoiseshell, odd amber veins along the surface. Meredith made me swear to not sell these to repeat clients or children. She claimed they were haunted, but they both passed the ‘cold touch’ test.”

Cassidy sat up straight.

“Hold on, you never told me he believed in haunted objects.”

I winced a bit and grimaced.

“Sort of? Maybe? Uncle Elias said there was always an explanation. Just not a neat and tidy one everyone liked,” I explained. “I’m starting to think he did believe in haunted objects, and knew a lot more than he let on. Listen to this.”

I cleared my throat again.

“There was ink in the pens. After trying a handwriting sample, I had vivid nightmares. These might be a bad investment. Best to put them in the vault.”

“Vault?” Cassidy echoed. “What vault? I remember when you cleared his safety deposit box after the will was read. Maybe he meant a safe?”

I shrugged.

“No idea. Wasn’t in his will. I’ve not seen a safe in the shop or when I had to clear out his home.”

My eyes scanned the journal page, reading over the entries again. This time I noticed a thin scrawl in the margin. I ran a finger over the notes, squinting at the letters that had nearly turned sepia with age.

“Cassie? Look at this,” I said, walking over to her with the journal.

I sat down next to her on the concrete floor, and pointed at the notes.

“This doesn’t look like part of the journal entry. It was like he made it later.”

Cassidy brushed her red hair out of her face, leaning over to look. I read the notations aloud.

“LGR77… P4… W27.” I frowned. “Looks like a math problem.”

Suddenly Cassidy snapped her fingers.

“No, I bet it’s an index. Think about it. LGR might mean ‘ledger’. The ‘P’ could be ‘page’?”

I nodded, quickly catching on.

“So ‘W’ might be word?”

She shrugged then squeezed my arm affectionately.

“Your uncle was really obsessive about staying organized. What if it’s some custom shorthand?”

Cassidy reached over to the ledgers, until she found the one for 1977. She flipped frantically through the entries.

“Here!” she tapped a yellowed page. “I swear, beloved, your uncle’s handwriting is so neat and spidery, it gives me fantastic chills. Anyway, yes, I’ve got something.”

She traced a finger along the page, counting off the words.

“…twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven. The word is ‘return’.”

“Return what?” I muttered. “Library books?”

Cassidy gave me a wry look, tapping the next line.

“Daniel, look. Right here on line thirty-one—”

She spun the green-bound ledger toward me. At the bottom of the page, almost lost in a sea of numbers at record entry thirty-one was another cryptic entry. It was as faint and sepia toned as the ones from the journal.

“P12? W14-22?” I read aloud. “Okay, P12? If ‘P’ was ‘page’ before, that would be page twelve. Then ‘W’ is word, so words fourteen through twenty-two?”

“It’d have to be,” she replied.

“No idea what the 77JNL42 or L4 means, though,” I sighed.

Cassidy exhaled, eyes drifting to the journal I brought over.

“Is there anything else in the journal?”

I turned it over in my hands, then searched each page again from front to back. A small faded number was circled on the upper left corner of the first page.

“Thirty-eight.”

Cassidy blinked at me.

“What?”

I showed her the number, then frowned at two of the journals next to Cassidy.

“Hey, I wonder.”

On the first page of each dusty book, I found a tiny circled number in the same location.

“They’re numbered!” I exclaimed, then rose to check two more journals. “I think the numbers restart each year? Maybe?”

A grin spread over Cassidy’s face as her green eyes lit up.

“That has to be it! I bet that’s journal forty-two for 1977. The rest would be page twelve, line four. Then the last part is words fourteen through twenty-two.”

Numbers spun through my head in overlapping patterns.

“Cassie, are we sure this is even right? Why would anyone bother to do this?”

She scrubbed a hand over her face, narrowing her eyes at the middle distance between us.

“Beloved, I’ve no idea,” she replied thoughtfully. “But your uncle did have a habit of stashing things out of sight for safekeeping.”

Her eyes went a little wide as if a thought struck her. She laughed softly, then gently squeezed one of my forearms.

“You know, it’s like trying to work out the combination to an old safe.”

The next moment passed in dead silence. Even the country music in the hallway had stopped.

“A combination.” I asked, raised my eyebrows.

“Like for a lock,” she replied. Then her eyes lit up again. “It’s a trail!”

I let out a low whistle.

“Okay. Let me dig out journal forty-two.”

Two hours later, the floor looked like an archivist’s graveyard. Journals from across 1977 to January 1978 were spread around us in uneven stacks, ledgers propped open like an accountant wizard’s spellbooks.

Cassidy muttered half to herself, counting out words, lines, or paragraphs. She’d frown or thump a page each time she hit a wrong number, curse then start back to the last good line.

As for me, my fingers wound up smudged with ghosts of ink and dust. The tips a bit sore, probably the same way my uncle’s had been from years of all these journals.

But we kept at it. Each time one of us found a clue, the other picked it up and ran with it, until everything turned into a steady rhythm.

By the time we were done, we sat on the store-all unit’s concrete floor, surrounded by dusty books. Cassidy had scrawled pages of notes in her own notebook.

For a long time, neither of us spoke. We just stared at the journals and Cassidy’s notes.

“It’s a hidden journal,” I said quietly. “Uncle Elias set up this entire page, line, word puzzle combination to hide an entire personal journal entry about these pens.”

Cassidy nodded, tapping a section of her notes.

“Right down to Meredith Rawls telling your uncle to burn the pens or get a priest.”

“Yeah, that’s encouraging,” I replied sourly, leaning back to work out a stiff back muscle. “It’s odd after telling Uncle Elias that, she kept one of the pens for safe keeping, what? Two days later?”

Cassidy flipped through her notebook.

“Three.” She pointed at her notes. “That’s when Uncle Elias stashed a pen in his own vault. Meredith was supposed to store the other pen in her vault.”

“More with these vaults or safes or whatever,” I sighed, running a dusty hand through my hair. “We’ll have to find them. Uncle Elias obviously had one, and probably kept it close by where he could get at it.”

Cassidy brushed a strand of hair out of her face, then idly tapped the side of her notebook.

“The shop. It has to be there, somewhere. Your uncle was so meticulous and careful, he’d never keep something like this at home. He also kept the shop’s security up to date.”

I leaned back on my hands, taking in a deep, dusty breath. Then I checked my watch.

“It’s not that late. Which first? Head home and turn the shop upside down, or find Meredith Rawls’ safe?”

I watched the wheels turn behind my wife’s eyes a moment, thumping a pen against her notebook.

“Meredith Rawls’ house,” she decided. “If your uncle’s safe is in this shop, and I really bet it is, we’ve time to find it. But we’ve no idea if the Rawls’ house is still up for sale since she died last year. Better to check.”

“Makes sense,” I nodded. “If someone’s bought the place or everything’s been cleared out and sold, we’ll have to track all those pieces down to maybe find this vault or personal safe. We have an address?”

Cassidy grinned as she snapped her notebook shut, wiggling it at me.

“Sure do. It’s not far from here, either. Along the edge of the bayou.”

We cleaned up the store-all unit, or at least made the chaos more organized instead of less. After that, we locked up, climbed into the car and headed for the address.

Just like Cassidy had said, it wasn’t far away—a short ten-minute drive. I frowned at the sign for Crescent Edge Cemetery, when I turned off the county road onto a gravel drive.

“Crescent Edge Cemetery?” I asked warily.

Cassidy frowned, quickly scrolling through her phone.

“Yeah, that bothers me, too. But I don’t remember why.”

We realized it the moment we pulled up in front of the old Victorian-style home.

Our headlights swept over the skeletal fingers of the wrap-around porch, before resting on a trio of ancient oaks in the front yard. Ghostly-gray fronds of Spanish moss, draped over the branches, shivered in the wind.

At the house itself, yellow warm light peeked out from around sun-aged curtains in the stained windows—a ghost’s half-lidded eyes thick from sleep. On the porch a man stood framed in that same yellow light, shoulders easy, as if he’d been standing there waiting.

I knew that silhouette.

A sharp smile sliced through the dark.

Dorian Callix was already home.

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. A meeting in the back office of Moonlight Curiosities, turns over a tempting business proposal. For a modest sum, Daniel and Cassidy would track down any and all information on a set of antique fountain pens. Ones that had belonged to Valeria Moffet—the bloodleech that tried to murder them. After some conversation, the couple warily agrees. Not so much that they want to, but they need to, given the damages to the shop they have to repair. Now all that remains is to dig in to uncover the history behind the antiques but also find two that have been missing for decades.

November 6, 2024. Our apartment above Moonlight Curiosities. Nothing says pie like a little skullduggery…

Dorian’s two-week deadline gave us plenty of motivation, so we dove into the research with a vengeance.

It was four days of clawing through half-forgotten library records, sketchy auction listings, and old estate sales. I wasn’t sure about Cassidy, but I’d read enough fountain pen collector forums to make my eyes cross.

Every time we thought we had a lead, it turned out to be a dead end. It felt like chasing smoke in a dark room. But for every four of those false leads, we’d get one hint of a real one.

Also, there was pie. A lot of pie. Maybe a couple of casseroles, too, but I lost those among the pie.

The soft reopening of Moonlight Curiosities brought a parade of well-meaning neighbors offering sympathy. Every one of them came armed with well-wishes served with a side of casserole. If it wasn’t casserole, it was enough pecans or other pies to build a sugar-powered shrine.

I was caught a little by surprise, but Cassidy handled it in stride.

“It’s fine,” she explained midway through the multi-day meal parade. “Gloamstead handles tragedy like any other small Southern town. You know, feed the survivors, smile politely, and—in our case—don’t get too nosy about the boarded up, scorched front window of our shop.”

I quickly caught on that a little nosy was still fine. After all, town gossip needed its own tender loving care. In any case, by the fourth day into it all, we’d turned it into the world’s oddest taste test.

“This one’s definitely squash,” Cassidy said around a bite, handing me a bowl. “That, or possibly revenge.”

I took it, eyeing the golden crust on top with suspicion. “Squash casserole is revenge?”

Cassidy gestured at the innocent casserole nestled in the white ceramic dish.

“If you grow more than you can store, add a lot of pepper, or both, it is,” she replied, before taking another bite.

I wasn’t entirely convinced, but tried my own bite anyway. At least I didn’t get ambushed by pepper.

“Mrs. Adelyne really didn’t have to do this,” I said between bites.

“Oh, yes, she did,” my wife said with a wry look. “Southern hospitality comes with a body count in the gossip circles.”

I snorted out a laugh, then ate more of the squash casserole.

“Did you get a chance to talk to Maggie Winsom about the pens?” I asked.

Cassidy nodded, pulling her laptop across the kitchen table while we ate. We’d closed the shop for the night, so she’d shed her human disguise for her natural skinshaper human-bat shape. It was her way of ‘letting her hair down’ to unwind. She sighed, combing fingers through her hair and dark fur, before giving a slow stretch of her arm wings.

“I did. Maggie said she had sold one online, but it wasn’t a Waterman. Just a 1942 Parker pen,” Cassidy said. “Looked similar though. Mrs. Adelyne’s story was better. She’s convinced her leaking pen is haunted.”

I nearly coughed on a piece of pecan pie.

“What?” I stammered, wiping my mouth.

“Haunted.” Cassidy grinned. “Not the right pen, but I almost thought it was. Her pen doesn’t have the weird amber lacework.”

Her claws raced over the keyboard.

“But other than that, I found something this morning while you were opening the shop,” she added.

I leaned over her shoulder to see her screen.

“Turtles?” I blinked.

Fur along her cheeks ruffled from a faint flush as she slammed the browser tab shut in a second—she clicked open another one.

“No, those were tortoises. Totally different.” She squeaked then pursed her lips. “Tortoiseshell pens got me thinking about tortoises. I got distracted.”

“You also like tortoises,” I teased.

“Yes, I do. Shut up. You know I do,” she admitted gently, even more embarrassed.

I held up my hands in defense. “Just kidding, honey. I get it. It was like me and ‘how did people make ink in 1722’ rabbit hole.”

“Exactly,” she replied, flicking her ear at me with a sheepish smile. “Anyway, like I said, I think I found our first real lead.”

She tapped the screen, giving me a proud, determined expression.

“Over the last hundred years, pens matching that Waterman pen Dorian dropped off have popped up in estate sales and other places.” She showed me a list of historical auctions. “Mostly in the Northeast. They show up, then vanish. Then a set of four—with one that looks like a perfect match for Dorian’s pen—gets purchased by a bookkeeper named Henry Vanil. He lived in Sleepy Hollow, New York.”

I blinked, setting down my serving of squash casserole before I pulled up a chair next to her.

“Wait. Sleepy Hollow?” I asked incredulously. “The Sleepy Hollow? Headless Horseman Sleepy Hollow?”

“Not making that up,” Cassidy replied with a fanged grin. It was hard to miss the delighted glint in her eyes.

“Was he Ichabod’s cousin?” I joked, grinning back. “Maybe a pen pal?”

“Didn’t say, but wouldn’t that be fun?” She tapped the screen. “It just says he lived there in the nineteenth century and had a thing about wanting to collect these pens.”

Cassidy tapped the keyboard again, pulling up a historical records site. It looked like it belonged to a library in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

“Then… he abruptly died.” Slowly, the amusement drained from her face.

A few clicks later, she dredged up scanned copies of a time-yellowed death notice. There wasn’t any mention of a headless horseman or burning pumpkins—just the date of October 12, 1919, and the method of death.

“Wait, Cassie. Hold on. It says they found his body withered, with his mouth and fingertips stained black?” I said slowly, raising my eyebrows. “That’s how he died?”

The words sat in my stomach like ice water.

“Murder ink,” she quipped morbidly.

The air felt like it chilled two degrees. Even the shadows at the corner of the room seemed a touch longer. Silently, we stared at the laptop for a long, uncomfortable moment, until neither of us could stand the silence.

“Dan, I really don’t like how close ‘withering’ and ‘black mouth’ are to ‘murdered gleefully by a supernatural thing’,” Cassidy said at last, voice thin. “Sure, I’m a skinshaper, but there are a lot of really nasty things out there.”

I reached for her furry hand out of reflex, caressing her fingers.

“Maybe he just chewed on ink sticks?”

Sure, that was unlikely. But it felt safer than the alternative.

Cassidy gave me a pained look, eyebrows bunched.

“Oh sure. Maybe he also died of chronic writer’s cramp.” Then she added with a small, worried look at the screen. “Are you sure we need this work? Supernatural shenanigans aside, do we really?”

I knew that hollow-eyed look, and right where her thoughts were headed. Even her voice held that same thin edge when we were being treated by the paramedics outside the Briarwood murder mansion. Before she retreated into that memory, I lightly kissed the knuckles of her hand, trying to interrupt her train of thought.

“We do,” I sighed. “The front window,” I reminded her solemnly. “All the remodeling we’d planned on to make this place work, so I don’t have to go crawling back to my former toxic tech job.”

Cassidy gave me a wan smile, before sliding a hand along the side of her face and snout.

“I really hate your old job. So. Right.” Her words came out soft, but serious. “We got this.”

“So, where did the pens go after Vanil?” I prompted.

Cassidy pulled up the shared document we’d filled with notes, website links, and more. Scrolling down, she tapped the screen lightly with a stubby claw.

“Yeah, and sorry, love, no trip to Sleepy Hollow. The pens vanish for decades,” she explained. “But then, two pens resurfaced in Gloamstead, 1977, which matches what Dorian told us. They were part of an estate sale for a Professor Martin Altamont.”

On the screen, Cassidy brought up an old black-and-white photo of a balding, mustached physics professor. He had that look of everyone’s favorite, happy uncle. The one who told the best jokes.

“So, who bought them from the estate?” I leaned forward a little toward the laptop. “Any idea?”

Cassidy’s claws ticked out a quick pattern against the table while she scrolled through the shared document.

“I found that,” she murmured. “It was here yesterday. Oh! There. This lady. She was a local collector who purchased them. Records got hazy, but I saw her name come up more than once.”

She stopped on a small entry in our document about a Meredith Rawls. I squinted a little as my mouth went dry.

“Wait. I know that name. She’s a friend of my uncle’s,” I explained in surprise. “I remember her from when I was a kid. She’d always have a box of old antiques with her for my uncle when I saw her.”

Cassidy’s smile faded in favor of a thoughtful nod.

“Sounds like she was your uncle’s antique ‘picker’,” she said. “Daniel, if that’s the same Meredith Rawls, she’s our best real shot at the pens. Not to mention any local history.”

“My uncle did have a Meredith that worked as an antique picker. She’s in one of the photos with him in the office.”

We found Meredith’s obituary online a few minutes later. Neither one of us spoke. We just read, and were a little too unnerved to talk at first.

“So, it was her,” I said softly, knocking the silence aside. “Died last year. Her memorial service was at Gloamstead United. I think I remember a little bit about this. No one wanted to talk about it. Closed casket. All anyone would say was ‘it happened very suddenly’. No one talks about how. Won’t even gossip about it.”

Cassidy turned to me, lightly running a hand softly along my back.

“Everyone who gets these pens dies in a really bad way,” she said, eyes filled to the brim with concern.

The comment hung in the air between us. Thanks to Dorian, we had one of those murder pens here in our shop.

“Everyone but Dorian,” I added in a brittle tone. “He didn’t even blink when he handed it to us. Which isn’t surprising since, well, Dorian’s a,” I waved a hand a little, “you know.”

“A bloodleech,” she replied. “Who’ll think it’s just fun that all the previous owners died horribly.”

Cassidy’s frown deepened.

“Now I wonder how many other cursed things he’s handled without batting an eye.”

“We need better clients,” I moaned slightly, putting my head in my hands.

Cassidy leaned over, touching her forehead against me a moment. I gave her hand a squeeze, relishing in the feeling of the velvety fur there.

“So,” I sighed. “It might help to know how Meredith died. But you know? We might have been sitting on the answers all along.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, squinting at me.

“If Meredith was an antique picker for my uncle, the pen or pens might have gone through here. This shop.” I explained. “My uncle kept alarmingly detailed records. If Meredith brought the pens to him, he’d have a record of it. Not to mention, he’d have some notes about the history of the pens.”

Cassidy sat up straight, wide-eyed.

“If not, surely Meredith Rawls kept her own records. Just to keep up with your uncle.”

“So, we just need to search my uncle’s old records from what? Forty-seven years ago?” I said with a thoughtful, mild frown into the middle distance. “Those won’t be in the shop’s digital records. It’ll be in the store-all. My uncle didn’t digitize records that far back. Said it wasn’t worth it.”

She clasped my upper arm gently with her hands, snout wide with a toothy grin.

“Yes! If that doesn’t pan out, we can dive into Meredith’s records. She died a year ago. Those have to still be stuck somewhere. People here in Gloamstead stash stuff for decades.”

“There’s one other bright side,” I told her with a grin. “We also have an amazing amount of suspicious squash casserole to buffer us against imminent, and gruesome, death.”

Cassidy broke down into a wheezing laugh, shattering the tension like cracked glass.

“Daniel. I love you so much,” Cassidy said, hugging me fiercely. “Seriously, if I die of suspicious causes, I’m haunting you until you die of vitamin A toxicity.”

Suddenly, I had a vision of the world’s most judgmental ghost haunting me with a casserole dish.

I raised my nearby portion of the squash casserole in a toast.

“I love you, too, Cassie. So, to loving spouses, weaponizing beta carotene, and dumpster diving into dusty antique shop records.”

“Maybe with less death?” Cassidy suggested.

“Maybe that, too,” I agreed.

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. With the bloodleech destroyed, Daniel and Cassidy took a well-earned collapse. It wasn’t the ‘day after getting married’ they expected, but it was far less terrifying than their wedding day. But life decided to spice things up a bit with a visit from another bloodleech. Only this one was less set on murder, but a little monetary mayhem wasn’t quite off the table. One Dorian Callix arrived with a business proposal, one that might help Daniel and Cassidy get the shop back in order…

November 2, 2024. Back office of Moonlight Curiosities. Making the uncomfortable choice…

The back office still felt like it belonged to my uncle. His space. Not mine—not yet. But at least it wasn’t crowded. Compared to the rest of the shop, it bordered on spartan.

An old, wide wooden desk dominated the western wall. It paired well with a refurbished 19th-century banker’s chair. Shelves held a mix of my books and my uncle’s keepsakes, from pocket watches to small ink paintings, and black-and-white photographs. Some were photos of my uncle with antique ‘pickers’ he’d worked with over the years—mostly locals from around the county. I hadn’t thought about them in years.

Last of all, there were three padded, red canvas chairs that kept the office desk company. Dorian Callix was already seated in one of them, directly across from the desk as Cassidy and I walked in. He leaned back, crossing one leg over the other, admiring the photographs.

“Moonlight Curiosities,” Dorian said thoughtfully, his New England accent stretching the words. “Good name for an antique shop. Has a nice sound to it. Did it always have that name, or was it a recent change?”

Cassidy and I swapped a wary glance. I took the chair behind the desk while she pulled over one of the canvas chairs to my right.

“My uncle named it when he first opened up shop,” I explained. “After the place passed to me, I didn’t see a need to change it.”

“Too many memories?” Dorian asked casually.

“Something like that.” I clasped my hands in front of me, leaning forward on the desk. “So, you mentioned something about a matter of interest?”

Dorian shifted position in the chair. It let out a muffled squeak in protest.

“That I did, but before we get to business, I’d like to offer my congratulations on your wedding.” A smooth smile brushed his face. “Two days ago now wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Cassidy replied. Her voice carried a quiet promise of violence.

Dorian nodded slowly.

“Shame Valeria interrupted your reception, wedding night and all. The woman had no sense of manners—or propriety.”

Cassidy looked ready to leap across the desk and throttle Dorian. I scowled. The last thing Cassidy and I wanted was fresh reminders.

“She had a lot of problems,” I replied, my words as brittle as dry clay. “Mr. Callix, if you don’t mind…”

He raised a hand idly to interrupt me.

“No, no. It’s Dorian, if you please. No need for formality between the likes of us,” he replied, an all too easy charm sliding easily off each word. “After all, we’ve something of a connection. Like I said outside, I owe you both a favor of getting me free of Valeria’s shadow.” Dorian gestured lightly to us with both hands. “So, I’m looking to repay that debt—if I ever can.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Which means what?” I asked carefully.

Dorian interlaced his fingers in his lap.

“Belated wedding gift,” he explained. “Maybe some help with that honeymoon. I can recommend a few nice places. All out of the way, of course, with no prying human eyes.” Dorian nodded to me. “No offense, mind you.”

I managed a thin smile. “None taken.”

Cassidy cleared her throat, staring holes in Dorian.

“Thank you for the congratulations… Dorian,” she said, her words honeyed poison. “But the other night was a bit trying. If that’s all…?”

“Oh, not in the least,” Dorian replied quickly. “Now, as I said I’ve a business offer I wanted to discuss. One I think you two are perfect for.”

He pursed his lips as if gathering his thoughts, eyes shifting between the two of us.

“As I mentioned, after you two had your little adventure with Valeria the other night, I had to tidy the remains. Best to clean that up before your sheriff got too curious.” He raised his eyebrows at us. “Though, two iron spikes? Really, one would have done in Valeria just fine.”

“We were pretty motivated,” I replied in a clipped tone.

I kept to myself that the second one was less ‘strategy’ and more ‘lethal panic attack’.

Dorian hummed, nodding at the statement.

“I suppose. Well, other than disposing of her remains, such as they were, I needed to take ownership of her things. Most I had burned. Some I had sterilized. But one in her personal safe caught me by surprise. Which is where you both come in.”

He reached into an inner coat pocket, producing a dark-toned beechwood box a good six inches long and two inches deep. The whole thing had been polished enough that the edges and corners had been worn smooth. Dorian set it on the desk, then slid it over to us. I exchanged a curious glance with Cassidy, then accepted the box.

Inside, nestled in faded crimson silk, was a fountain pen that made my pulse jump.

The barrel of it gleamed with the smooth, liquid tone of old, polished tortoiseshell. Swirling amber lines wound through the surface like vines, suggesting movement if you stared at it too long. They caught the light in a way that made them seem to move.

I wanted to lift it up but was a little worried to touch it. Beside me, Cassidy sucked in a sharp breath, staring.

“May I?” I raised an eyebrow at Dorian.

He gestured toward the pen.

“By all means,” he replied casually.

“Pre-1930s Waterman,” I explained with a thoughtful nod. “Classic tortoiseshell cover, but these amber lines aren’t typical Waterman design.”

I turned it over with my fingers. Just holding it made me want to scrub my hands with a rough sponge.

But what I said wasn’t a lie. Those amber lines around the pen shell weren’t typical. They were slightly raised, as if added later. I slowly ran my thumb over them. A dull cold settled in the pit of my stomach. I returned the pen back to the wooden case.

“Certainly vintage,” I told Dorian. “But you didn’t need either of us to figure that out. What’s so special about it?”

Dorian gave me a sly smile.

“It wasn’t alone,” he said. “The original box held four pens, two of which are missing. One is there, the other is with my accountant in New York. He’ll be moving down here later in the week as the rest of my estate arrives.”

I filed that away under future problems. Dorian didn’t seem to notice, or mind, that we didn’t comment on his moving plans.

“Waterman’s you say? Hm.”

Dorian’s face was calm, but I could tell the thought picked at him for some reason. Then he met my eyes again.

“In any case, my accountant assures me the last two of this set are here in Gloamstead. I’d like you to track them down for me.”

“Why us?” Cassidy asked suspiciously.

Dorian’s eyes glinted. “Honestly? Beyond your brief and bloody association with Valeria, I believe you two are best suited for the search.”

“We don’t make a habit of doing favors for murderers,” Cassidy snapped, leaning forward with the hint of a predatory posture.

If Dorian noticed, he didn’t let it show. That is one thing about bloodleeches—when they want to be composed, they’re masters at it.

“Which is why I’m wanting to pay you,” he replied smoothly, idly waving a hand. “As I said, it’s Valeria’s, or was. I can’t imagine why she kept them. She wasn’t, as you might expect, all that interested in this kind of history.”

Cassidy and I exchanged a look.

This was a mess. The kind that had already tried to kill us once. But the idea of passing up the work gnawed at me. I could tell by the tension in Cassidy’s shoulders and her jaw, it ate at her, too.

“Suppose we take the job—”

Dorian held up a hand to interrupt again.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll pay quite handsomely,” he explained. “Signed contract, all above board. Let’s say,” he waved a hand around at the room, “enough to rebuild this lovely little shop of yours to your exact tastes. Also, a bit more beyond that for you both to have a proper time away?”

He leaned forward conspiratorially with a smile so smug it made my shoulders twist into knots.

“Come now, you’re both far too clever to turn this opportunity down.”

I saw Cassidy was as tense as a spring. It was obvious, at least to me, that it took all her restraint not to claw either the desk or Dorian.

“And what happens if we don’t take it?” Cassidy asked uneasily, as if she suspected the answer and didn’t like it.

“I’ve been known to sulk,” Dorian replied with a theatrical sigh. “Which likely means impulse shopping therapy at antique stores… daily.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed.

He leaned forward to place his hands on the desk, interlacing his fingers. Again, he looked like an upscale salesman. At least Valeria had looked dangerous. Dorian was exploring new and inventive twists on exasperating.

“Shall we say, oh, two weeks to track down the missing pens?” He raised his eyebrows. “Possibly longer if needed? It really is quite important to me.”

Cassidy and I sat in silence for a moment, weighing our options in the heavy, almost thick moment. I glanced at Cassidy, face tense, eyebrows knitted tight. She sighed a little back, giving me a slight nod. I raised my eyebrows in reply, then matched Dorians’s serious look with my own.

“Fine,” I said. The word tasted like powdered rust on my tongue.

“Wonderful!” Dorian declared, clapping his hands together in pure delight. I almost flinched. That one word sliced through the tension like a silver-plated knife.

He stood, adjusting his immaculate, probably stain-proofed cuffs before he gestured to the door.

“I’ll be staying here in Gloamstead while making arrangements on property,” he explained in a casual tone. “There’s a charming old home near one of the local cemeteries that has completely carved out my heart. We can meet at your convenience. I’ll give you my number.”

He gave us another gracious smile.

“But don’t worry, I’ll check in here now and again.”

Oh, goody. I wasn’t sure if that was a threat. But he was going to pay us, so I decided it wasn’t.

“Keep the pen,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll need it for your research. Let me know when you’ve got a contract drawn up, and I’ll stop by.”

He placed a business card on the desk with his number. Then, with one last, sweeping small wave, Dorian strolled out of our office. We watched him go, then stared at the pen on the desk nestled in its wooden box.

Cassidy turned toward me, arms crossed, wearing that tight-lipped look she saved for really irritating problems she couldn’t swat.

“Well,” she sighed. “Isn’t that one hell of a wedding gift?”

I put my head on the desk and sighed.

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. The rescue came fast and furious but also arrived with a cost. Valeria Moffet didn’t go quietly, nor was she willing to go alone. With the life of a second victim in the balance nearby, Daniel and Cassidy worked together to end the threat of the bloodleech killer. But victory came hard, with Daniel and Cassidy being hurt in the process. As the dust settled, all that remained was to bandage wounds, call the sheriff, and find a way to less terrifying tomorrows… or so they thought…

November 2, 2024. Morning in our apartment above Moonlight Curiosities. Two days into married life, and already the world refused to mind its own business.

Yesterday turned out to be the champion of a rough day. After twelve hours at Magnolia Regional for treatment, then three interviews with Sheriff Branham over ‘burnt dust’, we were allowed to come home. I crashed immediately to sleep.

Cassidy slept peacefully in bed beside me. Shoulder-length auburn curls made a soft frame around her furry, bat-shaped face. One forearm wing was even draped over me like a shield. I watched her slowly flex her claws while she dreamed. She hadn’t bothered to shift fully human for sleep since Briarwood.

Still, it felt good to be alive.

Sunlight sneaked in around the dark green bedroom curtains, carrying the reminder that we nearly died two nights ago. I took a slow, quiet breath of welcome air.

“I’m sorry, Cassie,” I murmured under my breath. “This wasn’t how I hoped any of this would go. I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”

Memories of what happened ran through my mind in lurid detail. They lingered like a waking nightmare, unwilling to let go. Sure, Cassidy and I survived, but the whole moment was a thorn in my mind.

Especially around Valeria Moffet—my would-be murderer.

I closed my eyes as the memories ran over me. That too-sharp sensation when I was yanked through the antique bay window of our shop. The sting of shattered glass, and the brutal bite of Valeria’s claws, blurred with the echo of my screams. It was a bloody symphony in agony-minor.

All of it because she wanted our antique shop for herself.

Valeria’s skeletal talons, needle-like teeth, and that distorted smile were permanently etched in my mind. Then there were the bodies in the cellar. The horror of what she did to those people as they died was burned into my memory as well.

Monsters don’t let go of you easily—even when you survive, and they don’t.

A gust of autumn wind outside nudged the building, and a loose board somewhere in the attic creaked in protest. Then there was the soft brush of the Spanish moss kissing the bedroom window with a gentle whisper.

It was eerie, but also comforting in its own way. I had grown accustomed to city noises, but this small town life was a welcome change. Taking another deep breath, I watched Cassidy in her sleep.

Even in the morning light, Cassidy’s fine brown fur looked warm and comforting where it wasn’t hidden by bandages. Just seeing her here alive chased the demons out of my head.

Valeria had clawed her up pretty badly as well. But since Cassidy was a skinshaper, she’d heal back up pretty fast. I wasn’t so lucky. We humans tended to heal a bit slower.

My phone buzzed, shattering the calm mood.

“Oh, now what?” I breathed.

I grabbed the thing, then scrolled through the messages. After a quick couple of replies, I set the phone down to find Cassidy watching me. Her large black bat eyes glimmered with curiosity, interest, and something more mysterious.

“Hey there,” I said softly, laying back down next to her.

“Hey yourself,” she said in her soft Southern drawl. “Who was that?”

“One was Tobias about the repairs to the store downstairs. He’s still looking for the materials he needs for the window frame. It’s pretty messed up, and he wants to match the wood. But he’s got the replacement glass.” I pursed my lips, then took in a small breath. “The other was from work. Well, former work.”

Cassidy scowled at the latter, flicking a pointed ear.

“Why?” She stretched the word until I thought it would snap.

I frowned, trying to wave the topic off.

“No, it’s not pestering me for freelance work, software designs they won’t pay me fairly for, or ‘can you do just one more thing?’. It was just three messages hoping we’re okay, followed by a ‘call us if you’re ever ready to consult.’ It seems state and local news picked up on what happened last night and they all saw it. News media is calling it a ‘serial killer attack’ that was stopped by ‘brave local residents’.”

Cassidy groaned, burying her head in the pillow. Slowly, she flexed her claws against the bed.

“Serial killer?” she muttered, glancing back at me. “Well, at least they’re half-right. Bloodleeches are serial killers, among all the other nasty things they like to do.”

Then she tilted her head at me with a grin, flicking an ear at me once more.

“But that means I mostly get you all to myself today!”

“Yes, you do,” I grinned.

Cassidy slid over, folding her forearm wings back as she wrapped her arms around me. I flinched a little, my body still angry at the abuse I took the other night. Worry flickered across her eyes for a second, but snuggled close when I smiled.

“Good. Because I have plans for you, husband,” she purred. A mischievous glimmer shone in her solid, dark eyes.

“Oh, really?” I teased. “Aren’t we a bit beat up?”

“Careful plans,” she replied with a kiss.

It took at least a full hour to enjoy her plans, and I had no complaints. After that, we dragged ourselves breathlessly out of bed, dressed, then headed for the kitchen. Breakfast was on the menu, along with a start to our day.

We’d only just finished eating, and started on the dishes, when the downstairs shop bell rang. A short, polite knock followed it a few seconds later.

“But we’re closed for repairs,” I muttered, wiping my hands on a dishtowel. “There’s a boarded up, blood-stained hole in the front window and everything.”

“Also, we put a sign up,” Cassidy added suspiciously.

We rushed down the steps from our apartment into the shop.

The shop itself was quiet, with antiques waiting where we left them in locked cabinets or on wooden shelves. But still, the air felt tense, if not heavy. Before we reached the front door, Cassidy had slipped back into her human disguise complete with green eyes and freckles.

Past the frosted glass in the dark wooden door, we saw a tall man standing outside. I swapped a suspicious glance with Cassidy before unlocking it to see what he wanted.

“Daniel and Cassidy Hawthorne?” The man’s manners, even his New England accent, were like silk. “Dorian Callix,” he said with a polite smile.

The man was tall and thin, with slicked-back sandy hair and a gaze that didn’t quite look at you. Instead, he looked through you, or even into you. I had to admit, he was dressed with impeccable taste—somewhere between a low-rent fashion plate and upscale life insurance salesman. His light windbreaker and gray-and-white clothing were perfectly pressed. A faint, sweet scent rode the autumn air around him, like a dusty cinnamon that was just a bit wrong.

Dorian looked more like the idealized idea of a stylish person than a real one. It was a little unsettling. His eyes slid over the antique shop’s blood-stained front window to his right. Then he smiled—thin, polite, and just a little too deliberate to be comfortable.

“If you’ve time, and aren’t too busy,” he said, stretching the word a bit, “I’d like to come in and discuss some matters of interest with you both.”

Cassidy darted in front of me even as Dorian made the request. Her disguise dropped just enough to bare fangs and claws, every muscle in her shoulders coiled for a fight.

“Bloodleech,” she growled, sniffing the air.

The memory of Valeria’s giggles ran through my head. I gripped the door handle hard enough to choke it.

Dorian held up his hands in a peaceful gesture.

“Truce, skinshaper. Truce. I’m here in full good faith,” he said carefully. Dorian’s gray eyes were cold and calculating. Wary. The autumn air turned tense. “Also, I wanted to thank you… both of you… in person.”

“What?” I snapped.

He interlaced his fingers in front of him with a thin smile.

“I’ll explain.” He took a long breath. “Valeria Moffet was what you’d call my ‘maker’—though that term flatters her way too much, and isn’t entirely accurate. She was a bit careless, often caught up too much in her own appetites.”

He shifted his weight, then gestured to us.

“When news of you two spread among the creatures of the night, some believed it, some didn’t. Those that did believe, were upset or curious.”

“They’re jealous,” Cassidy growled, still eager for that fight.

The bloodleech shrugged. “Hm, probably, or thought you had found some advantage they didn’t. Valeria was one of those. She wanted whatever it was, or at least to feast on you two like some new exotic, imported candy. The curious ones? They’re just that. Curious. Especially since this sort of thing is rare enough to begin with.”

“Where do you fall?” I asked sharply, not quite itching for a fight.

“Oh, I’m the latter,” Dorian replied with a soft chuckle. “I try not to be stupid, and stick my fingers in an obvious blender, hm?”

He punctuated that with a glance at Cassidy’s claws, raising his eyebrows.

“You see, you two helped me move up a bit in bloodleech ‘society’, such as it is. So, I’m in your debt. Also—” he hesitated, weighing his words “—Valeria wasn’t working alone, whether she knew it or not. Which means, someone has to clean up the mess, which would be me.”

Dorian glanced up and down the sidewalk as the fall leaves blew along the tree-lined street. A couple of the older locals, on their way to Miss Milly’s diner, slowed down enough to stare.

Cassidy stepped back far enough to be out of sight, but remained close enough to be a very clear and present danger.

The man cleared his throat, before pulling on that too-smooth grin again. He nodded toward the doorway.

“If I may? It’s a bit chilly today. There really is something potentially lucrative I’d like to talk about. We could continue this inside where we’re out of the wind… prying eyes,” he raised his eyebrows, “and ears? Gloamstead is a rather small town.”

I swapped a glance with Cassidy. A silent conversation that said a thousand things and expressed even more concerns.

Dorian’s smile turned tense and worried.

“You have my word. I’m no threat to your little family. Nor is any bloodleech that owes me in any way.”

Cassidy sighed and nodded. We stepped aside to let him in.

“There’s a small office to the left of the checkout counter, over by the vintage lamps.” I indicated a path between shelves of hand-carved wooden boxes, and a few well-preserved, iron railroad spikes.

“Thank you,” he replied with a gracious smile.

Casually, he strolled over to the office, but took great care to avoid the railroad spikes. His eyes traveled over the rust-freckled iron. There was a brief twitch of distaste, like he’d caught a whiff of something sour. Overall, Dorian gave the shelf a wide berth.

“I don’t trust this,” I whispered. “He wants something more than business.”

Cassidy clenched her jaw, then took a long, slow breath. Gently, she shifted all the way human, putting a hand on my arm and squeezing lightly.

“I really don’t trust him either,” she said, voice low. “But he gave his word. For a bloodleech that’s a really big deal.”

She took another long, deep breath, then stroked my arm a little with a hand. I could tell it was to reassure her as much as it was for me.

“I hate this,” she grumbled. “I really do hate this, Daniel. Especially after the other night.”

I resisted flinching at the mention of the fight with Valeria in Briarwood Manor. Instead, I held her hand, kissing her knuckles.

“Me too.” A sigh drained out of me. “But… he mentioned something ‘lucrative’ and we need the money for that window and the other damages.”

Cassidy gave the boarded up bay window the same look you’d give a wedding cake that had collapsed in the middle of your own reception.

“Yeah, I know.”

I frowned at the office. “Cassie? If he gets out of hand, we kick him out. Deal?”

She gave me a quick kiss on the lips with a small smile.

“Deal.”

We crossed the main storefront to see just what kind of trouble our unusual, and mostly unwanted guest, had dropped at our doorstep.

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

Previously. After being kidnapped and nearly killed, Daniel Hawthorne set out to escape the rotten walls of the Briarwood Manor Estate. But plans changed once he heard the wailing cries of a second victim in the nightmarish home. Someone else trapped in the claws of the monster, Valeria Moffet. Escape became survival, then turned to hope as Daniel’s own personal avenging angel arrived—his shapeshifting wife, Cassidy.

October 31, 2024. Seconds later in the Briarwood Manor Estate’s old library. Gloamstead, Alabama. Sometimes violence is an option…

“Daniel!” Cassidy yelled, sliding the bag across the floor to me.

She leaped forward with inhuman speed. There was a wet popping sound—like celery snapping inside a burlap sack.

Soft brown fur pushed out of her skin as a furry snout extended from her face. Delicate fangs reached below her lips, peeking out as they only did when she was so very pissed off. Her eyes turned a deep, onyx-black as wings snapped open under her arms, shredding more rents in her loose cotton shirt.

In the time it took her to reach the bloodleech, Cassidy had changed completely. A moment ago, she’d been entirely human. Now, she was a lean, humanoid-animal shape—a perfect blend of woman and human-sized fruit bat.

One very angry humanoid fruit bat.

The instant she reached Valeria, dark brown claws snicked out the ends of her fingers, slicing deep gashes along the fiend’s mummified face. Valeria screamed as if stabbed by hot needles, stumbling back as Cassidy advanced like a predator going for the kill.

On the floor, I crawled away from the fight dragging the canvas bag and candlestick. The bag was heavy, but my head was too muddled to figure out why. There was something important about the bag, but I felt too much like a battered sack of old potatoes to remember.

I finally found the nearest wall. Putting my back to it, I turned to face the chaos, barking out a dry cough from getting choked. Barely five feet away, the two women slashed, stabbed, and bit each other with savage abandon.

A dim thought in my head screamed to get up and help. Do something—anything useful.

“Up… Get up!” I snarled between clenched teeth and aches.

Pressing a shoulder against the wall, I shoved myself to my knees, then got unsteadily to my feet. I held up the bent candlestick, grimacing.

“This won’t do. All she did was giggle, and probably thought I was flirting or something,” I wheezed, tossing the holder aside. It clanked to the floor like a bad foregone conclusion. I rubbed my throat, thinking through pain. “Need better. Something sharp… pointed.”

I shifted my weight. When I leaned my back against the wall facing the bloody fight, I heard the solid clunk of metal in Cassidy’s dirty canvas bag. I yanked it open, hoping for jars of napalm garlic or something equally impressive.

What I found was so much better.

Inside the bag rested a pair of rusted, iron railroad spikes. A tired smile brushed my lips as I stared at them.

A memory flashed through my mind. One, not long back, where Cassidy had explained over dinner about bloodleeches and iron—they hated raw iron, especially with rust. It burned them like being boiled in acid. Funny enough, she said they called it ‘cold iron’ like in the old myths about faeries.

“Why is it always iron with brain-sucking monsters and faerie tales?” I murmured.

Also, it struck me that Cassidy and I had the strangest dinner conversations.

But, cold, rusted, or not, this was still a spike. Last I knew, everyone was allergic to getting stabbed—especially with a railroad spike. I grabbed one, dropping the bag to the floor.

“Valeria!” I yelled.

She spun around, claws up.

I slammed the spike into her upper chest.

Valeria jerked from the impact, then screamed loud enough to shatter glass two houses away.

Smoke boiled from the wound like an open fire as the acrid stench of burned meat and cooked rot flooded the air. I gritted my teeth and shoved again, pushing the spike deeper. The bloodleech went wild with an insane shriek, her claws leaving light gashes along my forearms.

“You! I’ll… rip you… apart!” she rasped.

I let go and ducked her claws, long enough to grab the second spike.

“Cassie!”

I tossed the spike. Exhausted and bleeding, Cassidy snatched it out of the air. She thrust, but Valeria twisted aside. I lunged and hammered both hands down on the spike—a frantic, staccato rhythm of death. Whose death I wasn’t sure, I just hoped it was hers. More smoke spilled out of the bloodleech like a rancid fog.

Valeria grabbed me by the throat and squeezed hard. My eyes watered, darkness frayed the edges of my vision. Just as I thought she was about to rip open my throat, Valeria jerked hard from behind, mouth open in stunned shock. Fresh fetid smoke burned up from behind Valeria.

Cassidy was suddenly there right behind Valeria.

“I said hands off my husband,” Cassidy hissed into Valeria’s ear.

Valeria’s scream landed somewhere between rage and agony.

Then it was over.

Suddenly, the room felt enormous and eerily quiet.

The entire nightmare lasted less than a minute as the rusted iron did its gruesome work. With one final, garbled shriek and rattled breath, Valeria Moffet—serial killer, bloodleech, and a literal walking terror—dissolved into a pile of charred dust and cracked bone.

I half-expected the dust to twitch. Reform. Maybe whisper something final and creepy. But no, it was just gray-black dust, bone, and the smell of overcooked evil.

Exhausted, Cassidy and I stared numbly at the smoldering heap with its sour stink of burned rot.

A second or two passed, then I looked over at my wife, giving her a lopsided grin. Then my knees gave way, and I fell like a discarded puppet. My vision blacked out for a second, before I realized that I never hit the floor. That seemed somehow wrong, like I’d broken gravity.

Then I realized Cassidy had caught me as I fell.

Carefully, she lowered me the rest of the way down, leaning me against a wall. Panting hard, she collapsed against me, gently pressing her soft, fox-like muzzle against my cheek. Blood matted the fur in her arms from long, thin slashes that mirrored the cuts I had.

“Good catch,” I murmured painfully.

Darkness dissolved the edges of my vision again and I felt myself starting to go limp. Cassidy clutched at me, as if she could hold me together by force of will. She stroked my hair, and I dimly felt her furry hands trembling.

“Daniel! No! Honey, no! Please. Oh, please, no. Don’t leave me. Blink. Breathe. Please, love… breathe…”

That sounded like a really great idea, so I did.

One breath led to a cough. I blinked, then reached up to run a hand through that wonderfully soft brown fur on her cheek.

“Hey, sunshine.” I rasped. A cough chased the words. “Just a thought. How about if we get married again, we just elope? Justice of the peace, secret honeymoon, and all that? Maybe skip all the blood and murder?”

Cassidy choked back a sob underscored with a soft bat’s twitter. A tear trailed through her fur.

“Deal,” she whispered, then cradled me gently.

I jerked as my pain-addled mind remembered the college kid.

“Couch!” I coughed, pointing at the sofa. “Kid. She grabbed a college kid. Did something to him.”

I tried to get up, but Cassidy sternly shook her head.

“No, and I mean it! I’ll go check on him, then find something to rip into bandages,” she sighed. “You stay here.”

“Good idea,” I said, then coughed.

She gave me a light kiss on the forehead, then hurried off to the couch. I tried to sit with my back against the wall, imagining I was comfortable—mostly, I was just trying to catch my breath.

Once my head cleared a little more, I pushed against the wall to stand up, then searched the room. There had to be a way to call for help. After all, she’d called the shop dozens of times before tonight already.

It turned out there was a way. My phone, along with fifteen more, lay in a bowl on a nearby bookshelf.

“She collected the phones of the people she murdered? Oh no, that’s not unsettling at all…” I muttered, tapping the screen of my phone. Miraculously, it still worked.

Cassidy hurried by with an armload of unexpectedly clean sheets and a pair of scissors. Dropping the bundle next to the couch, she winced a little as her fur receded to skin. Bones adjusted as she pulled on her human disguise again. Then she savaged one of the sheets with enthusiasm, pain blending with worry in her eyes.

“The kid on the sofa is as pale as a ghost, but breathing,” she said, tearing sheets.

“She clawed his scalp, then I think bit him?” I explained between coughs.

Cassidy nodded grimly, eyes stern.

“Yeah. Bloodleeches do that.”

She quickly bandaged the kid, then went to work wrapping my forearms, grimacing at the sight the entire time.

“Love? How are we going to explain any of this to Sheriff Branham?”

I let out another dry cough, trying to remember how phone numbers and thumbs worked.

“Wedding crasher from hell?” I quipped, then winced as far too many cuts and bruises needled me.

Cassidy secured the last bandage, then wrapped her arms around me in a gentle, secure hug. A kiss came right after that.

I dialed. The sheriff’s office answered the phone, and I let out a long sigh.

“Yeah, this is Daniel Hawthorne. My wife, Cassidy, and I are at the old Briarwood Manor estate. Sheriff Branham needs to get over here right away with an ambulance. We, ah, found where the missing tourists went.”

I glanced at the pile of flaky, burnt dust that was once Valeria Moffet, murderous drama queen and bloodleech.

“He also might want to bring a shop vac, and some little baggies, too.”

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

New installments or chapters will materialize every Monday…

Missed a chapter? You can find the full list here.

October 31, 2024. Abandoned Briarwood Manor Estate. Gloamstead, Alabama. Beating a brain-sucker at her own game…

Married three hours ago. Kidnapped two hours ago. Tortured one hour ago for my antique shop.

It’d been one hell of a day.

Consciousness hit me like a fist to the jaw. I jerked awake, tied to a chair, my best blue suit torn and bloody. Gasping air like a drowning man, I fought down panic. After that, I fought with the ropes.

I didn’t actually plan to get kidnapped, or almost murdered, on my wedding day. That was the serial killer’s idea. Having all that take place in an abandoned estate was icing on the death cake. Finally, the knots at my wrists came loose.

“Damn it!”

I hissed in pain, yanking my bloody, scraped hands free. The other bonds were easier to shake off, but I was still careful. Getting stabbed by a jagged, rotten splinter from the chair I sat in was the last thing I needed. I had enough problems.

Honestly, it was a pretty old chair. But while I probably could’ve snapped the wood to get loose, my murder-host, Valeria Moffet, had already worked me over. She’d sliced thin cuts across my chest and one shoulder. They stung like hell.

I eased out of the chair, tossing the ropes aside. Carefully, I rubbed my legs, desperately trying to get some feeling back. Pain pricked at me where the dried blood tugged at the edge of my cuts. I grimaced.

“That hurts like hell.” I shuddered out a sigh. “But I’m still alive.”

A pins-and-needles sensation shot through my legs, making my knees tremble as I glanced around.

“Alive is good. Need to stay alive.”

The air was thick with every festering scent no one wanted to smell. Mold, mildew, and rotten carpet had mixed into a sharp stench that assaulted my nose. I coughed, nearly falling over, then searched my pockets for my phone to call for help. The most I found was damp pocket lint.

“Shit!”

I clenched my jaw, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“No phone. Nothing. She took it all. I’ve got to find help. There has to be a phone… something.”

I eased across the forgotten bedroom, lightheaded from pain. Warped, loose floorboards slowed me down, but terror kept me moving. Once on the other side of the room, I knelt by the bedroom’s only door out, listening for threats. Thunder crashed outside, while rain beat against the cracked and stained windows. Somewhere in the house, wind moaned through exposed rafters that creaked at the abuse. It was a haunted house soundtrack in real time.

But there weren’t any footsteps, screams, or high-pitched giggling—not even heavy breathing outside my own. That bled some tension out of my back. I sighed.

“Weapon. I need a weapon,” I murmured between waves of pain. “Crowbar. Pipe. Something.”

I glanced around the bedroom, clenching my jaw. There wasn’t much.

Valeria had stripped the room down to a chair, battered and stained mattress, and a dilapidated dresser. Nerves pricked goosebumps along my skin like hot needles.

“It’s like some sick stage play for a ritual murder,” I huffed bitterly. “Maybe I could hit her over the head with a drawer? I do not want to die here.”

Slowly, I pushed to my feet, ignoring the hot pain from the bloody gashes under my clothes. Darkness frayed at the edges of my sight, making the world swim. I closed my eyes.

“Cassie.” I breathed my wife’s name like a prayer. “Please be safe—I’m coming.”

I gave up on the drawer idea, since it was rotten anyway, and eased out of the room. The hallway outside was draped in long shadows, spilling across a heavily stained brass-gold carpet that made my eyes spin.

Dark wood-paneled walls with the occasional wallpaper trim didn’t help the lighting—not that there really was much. It was just sporadic bursts of lightning outside, flashing through the second floor windows. There were paintings I didn’t care about, and the occasional thin table that held something decorative, like a mummified flower arrangement.

My memory of the place was a lost cause, so I picked a direction and eased forward. I jerked at motion in the corner of my eye, then relaxed with a shudder. It was me in a yellowed window pane nearby—dark hair bloodied, skin paler than I liked. I looked like a refugee from a mortuary.

A haunting giggle tickled the air before a soul-tearing scream slapped it. My blood froze.

It was her.

Valeria Moffet—elegant and graceful as smooth marble, but as twisted as rusted barbed wire.

“God, she’s already at it again,” I rasped, voice trembling. “Another body for the stack in her basement.”

I leaned against the wall for support as that scream split the air again, needling a headache into me. This time, sobbing chased after it.

“Please don’t let it be Cassie,” I prayed selfishly.

Cassidy or no, I didn’t want it to be anyone. Still, I hurried down the hall, where I finally found the front stairs to the foyer, and the way out.

“Sheriff. I need the sheriff,” I wheezed. “If I can…”

Another sharp scream and sobbing shattered my thoughts. I twitched and nearly tumbled down the staircase. That shriek felt like it battered everything, from me to the dying art déco wallpaper trim. I sucked in a sharp, putrid breath to clear my head.

“All right, think, Daniel. That can’t be Cassie. The pitch is all wrong. Whoever that is, they’re as human as me.”

But that didn’t make it better—just different. It was still someone Valeria had dragged into this playtime horror show of hers. I glanced down the stairs to the stained foyer, then at the closed front door.

Valeria’s giddy giggle trembled the air, toying with my nerves.

I squeezed my eyes against tears.

“Shit,” I muttered bitterly. “Just… no. I can’t leave whoever that is. Just can’t, even if I’m beat to pieces. There’s no way I’ll get help in time.”

A knot of terror rose in my throat—it was time for a bad idea.

“Cassie?” I prayed quietly. “Please find me. I’m about to be so very stupid.”

A quick, desperate search of the hallway turned up a heavy, antique silver candlestick from atop a nearby wooden hutch. The metal holder was ornate and old, carved with delicate 19th-century filigree.

Valuable? No doubt. But at that moment, it felt better as a metal club than an expensive antique.

“You’ll do,” I growled at the candlestick, then stalked down the hallway. “Cassie said Valeria was a bloodleech. Well, now I’ve got a candlestick. Let’s see who wins.”

It was a great speech—I hoped it wouldn’t be my epitaph.

I eased downstairs, avoiding the worst of the loose boards, and followed the screams. They wailed like warbling ghosts from the manor’s old sitting room, turned personal library, on the first floor. A limp, infected yellow light spilled out of the room’s open double doorway.

Another scream. It sounded like a young man having his soul torn out of his lungs.

This needed to stop one way or the other. I’d curl into a ball and cry later, if I lived. Everything about this plan of mine centered on Valeria being too occupied to hear me over the noise.

But that murder mansion had way too many loose boards. One past the doorway squeaked when I stepped on it. I swung and missed—she didn’t.

The world became an ugly smear. I slammed into a wall at top speed after Valeria threw me like a meat rag. Old wood paneling cracked behind me. I collapsed into a heap, air knocked from my lungs. A moldy avalanche of books poured from an overhead shelf. I dimly realized that somehow I still had my candlestick.

A blonde, college-age, young man lay nearby bound up like a fresh-catch. He was stretched out on his stomach across a battered, bloodstained Victorian sitting sofa. If he wasn’t screaming, he sobbed. Next to him sat an old black grand piano that played host to a lit set of yellow-white candles.

It was yet another of Valeria’s picturesque horror scenes for murder.

The madwoman herself tapped three out-of-tune piano keys while she stopped next to the young man.

Valeria Moffet—elegant as a thin stiletto—stood like she owned the room. Glossy dark hair framed a face too perfect and too pale to be anything but wrong. Her eyes were a washed-out blue, cold and distant as moonlight over ice. The look she gave me was clinical, almost curious, as if she hadn’t decided what part of me she wanted to keep.

Her dead-blue eyes slid over to the young man on the couch when he groaned again.

“Quiet, you,” she sneered icily. “Snacks don’t interrupt.”

The young man replied with a wet, mumbled whisper. Nothing more than mangled pain and sobbing dressed up like words. Valeria scowled.

In a flash, long, sharp, ebony nails snapped out of her fingers before she scraped his scalp. Blood welled up in long lines. He screamed. Her lips curled in a faint smile before she leaned down, planting a soft kiss on the back of his neck.

He spasmed.

She inhaled.

I stared wide-eyed and trembling.

The young man collapsed, unearthly still. Once Valeria straightened, she wiped a clear fluid from her pale, black-veined lips. Her chilly smile was all sharp edges. A cold humor that didn’t quite reach those chilly blue eyes.

“Now, Daniel, where were we? Oh, you were giving me your antique shop,” she said as smooth as poisoned oil.

I rolled to my right, ignoring the pain that danced along my cuts. Using the wall as support, I got to my feet, brandishing my now-warped candlestick like an all-too-short baseball bat.

“Get bent. Where’s Cassidy?” I rasped while my knees trembled.

Valeria drifted away from the sofa with an inhuman grace that defied the laws of physics. Every primal instinct I had screamed to run, find a deep cave, and hide.

“Your little bat is hiding,” she said coolly. A smile tugged at her mouth. “Which is clever of her, even if she was stupid enough to follow you here.”

A shudder punched through me. I didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, I glared.

Valeria tilted her head a little, considering me like a venomous snake debating a tasty meal.

“Still, she’ll be a lovely keepsake. So will you.” Her smile sharpened. “Isn’t that what you do at Moonlight Curiosities? Offer lovely ‘keepsakes’? You should’ve given me what I wanted, Daniel.”

She rushed at me before I could spit back some half-baked remark of desperate bravado. Quickly, I swung the candlestick. She ducked, and I missed. Again. Sadly, she didn’t, knocking me backwards.

Wood paneling snapped once more when she bashed me against the wall. I slid down, leaving behind a me-shaped crater as my body kissed the floor with an ugly thump. Pain told me to stay down. Instead, I lurched to my feet with a roar, candlestick at the ready.

I swung wildly as Valeria stepped back, wide-eyed. Candlestick met jaw at top speed—a wet crack of bone followed. The fiend lurched to one side, then reset her jaw with an ugly pop. She giggled as if it were the best joke in the world.

“Oh, I was hoping you’d fight. It’s so boring when my guests just let me drink them down.” She ran a tongue over her lips. “This way there’s struggle. A delicious, awful panic.”

“Get a therapist,” I wheezed.

She darted forward, a snarl cutting the air.

This time her skin shriveled like overheated paint bubbling off polished wood. Reddish-purple veins weaved erratically through her withered skin. Her almost too-perfect marble elegance, like an ideal image of a person, melted away like rancid candle wax.

Valeria’s eyes rolled fully back into her head, replaced with void-black orbs as her fingers stretched long and skeletal. Ebony-dark claws snapped out of her fingers again, aimed for my chest.

I darted aside, but her claws found my shirt. She jerked, and the room flipped sideways around me. Mold and plaster dust filled the air when I hit the wall… again.

“So delicious.”

The words slithered out of her warped, sucker-like mouth, ringed with needle-like teeth.

“I can’t wait for you to watch while I suck your precious Cassidy dry. All before I eat you.”

She hauled me off the floor, one hand on my shirt, the other at my throat.

I should’ve been terrified. But Valeria underestimated my rapidly diminishing sense of self-preservation. With a manic zeal, I slammed the candlestick against the bloodleech until the metal—and her jaw—bent out of shape.

“Let. Me. Go!” I rasped with each hit, turning purple while I slowly lost air.

Valeria savagely snapped her jaw back into place with a free hand, as a shadow stretched across both of us.

I managed a limp grin.

“Oh, you’re gonna get it now,” I croaked.

It was my wife.

Cassidy stood in the doorway, clutching a small canvas bag—jeans and shirt as torn as my suit. Red hair, wild and unkempt, framed a face with livid emerald green eyes. She was a five foot eight bundle of delightful, righteous fury.

“Drop him right now!”

Her command sliced the air like a scalpel. Heat flashed in her eyes like torches from a thousand angry villagers.

“Oh. The bat,” Valeria hissed with a bored, sucking sneer.

The bloodleech dropped me like yesterday’s garbage. But she barely had time to turn around before Cassidy was already in motion.

For more about Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries, Windtracer Tales, Legends of the Privateers, or any of my other works, please consider subscribing as I would really appreciate the support, sometimes I post behind the scenes on writing, worldbuilding and more.

If you’ve enjoyed this and are looking for a little more action, take the plunge here at the link over to Legends of the Privateers. But if action-archeology is more your style, take the leap over here to Windtracer Tales!

Buy Me a Coffee!

Subscribe now

Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.

A Letter In an Envelope that reads, “Introductions”

Welcome Stranger!

Looks like you’ve found our quiet little county along the Alabama-Florida line here in the Southeastern US. Our tiny little corner of the world. Let me be the first to say…

Welcome… and don’t forget to lock your doors at night.

Blighridge County, which holds the little towns of Gloamstead and Craigbrook, isn’t much. But those of us living here call it home. Folks here keep to themselves, mostly. But you’ll find we’re all good company… provided you mind your manners, and watch where you step.

You see both Gloamstead and Craigbrook have got their quirks. A bit of personality, you might say. See, shadows linger a bit longer than they ought to. Those soft voices on the wind? That’s just Leatherdown Bayou whispering louder than the wind should carry it. Don’t worry, it’s probably just saying hello. Probably. And anyway, you’re new here, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

Oh! If you’re for history, you don’t want to pass up Briarwood Manor. It’s a landmark, sure, but after dark? You might meet the family. And not in the way you’re thinking. But they might be glad to see you. Real glad.

Now, life here in Blighridge County might seem a bit old-fashioned. Sure, we know mankind went to the moon, and people are now talking a lot about going to Mars. That’s all fine. Here, we keep a bit to the old ways. A lantern in the window at the bayou’s edge. Salt by your doors. Oh, and if you think you hear a strange knocking after dark? Unless you’re expecting someone, best you ignore that. It’ll pass.

You see, the cypress, the moss, the bayou itself—they all remember things. Old things that chuckle over walking on the moon. Things that might be best left forgotten.

So stay sharp, keep your eyes open, and don’t trust every kind word you hear. You see, some shadows might have a soul… and a few teeth to along with that.

But now, you enjoy your stay!

Ah, one last thing… don’t miss out on Miss Milly’s meat pies!

They’re to die for.

See you in the morning!

Don’t forget to lock your door...

Roy Branham, Blighridge County Sheriff

P.S. If you get a little lost and need some help, stop by Moonlight Curiosities in Gloamstead. I knew Daniel’s uncle back in the day before he vanished. Daniel and Cassidy Hawthorne, who run the place now, are good people. They’ll help you out if they can. Just… watch what you touch there. That shop runs itself on more than just money…

Season/Book 1: Inkwell of Shadows

Click for the Table of Contents

Newlywed, but not newly-dead. At least, not yet…

Daniel Hawthorne thought marrying his long-time fiancée, Cassidy—a shapeshifting bat-creature called a skinshaper—would be the hard part. Especially compared to quitting his workaholic job as a software engineer to run his late uncle’s antique shop in a quiet Southern town.

Sadly, not so much.

After a supernatural enemy crashes their wedding night with blood and fire, Daniel and Cassidy barely escape with their lives. The old storefront is smashed. Their honeymoon? Ruined. To rebuild, they’re forced to take a dubious job investigating a set of antique fountain pens. Ones with a long and deadly history in their wake.

Now they find themselves caught up in a century-old problem steeped in ink and blood. At the same time, a mysterious figure is also looking for the pens—and is willing to kill anyone to get them. Worse? It all might have ties to the monster that nearly murdered them.

To protect home, sanity, and each other, Daniel and Cassidy must uncover the truth—at least before their names are written in blood.

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Moonlight Curiosity Mysteries and Curses by Darklight is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. To be honest, it’s a bit creepy, if not spooky, when is isn’t beside itself with nerves. It tends to be a little shy. Did I mention it likes to needlepoint because there’s lots of stabbing? Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. Which means, really, he gets all the blame.

Any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, or why-aren’t-they-dead-YET is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author's, since the characters and the author tend to disagree a lot. Like daily.