A/N: Well, I'm ashamed to say that it's been about a year since my last update on this story. I'm so, so sorry I've kept you all waiting this long, and on a cliffhanger at that! I know, I'm such a terrible person, right? I just hope I still have readers this chapter after so long, but maybe some new readers will join in after this update. Also, I just want to thank you guys so much for over 100 reviews on Cursed! Wow, I never thought I would ever have a story get this kind of attention (not that it's super popular or anything, but you know what I mean). It's just amazing to think that people actually read what I write sometimes. The beginning chapters of this fic aren't so good, but hey, I did start writing this when I was about twelve. Hopefully I don't disappoint too much, haha.

Only one more chapter after this, and then comes the epilogue. Plus a possible alternate ending to the story after that, since I have two current ideas for the next chapter that clash horribly, and can't decide which should be the official ending and which might just be additional. No guarantees on that, though. Thank you all again, particularly Craest Spell, whose recent review motivated me to provide this update!

-CCM

Chapter 25: Silver Moonlight

When the terrible sound faded away, Claire quickly glanced over at Cliff and the children, and wasn't surprised to see that they all looked as scared as she currently felt. Her mind still reeling, she stood up and gestured for the others to do the same.

"Come on… We can't just stand here," she said, much more bravely than she actually felt. She struggled to keep her voice from wavering in fear; she couldn't let May and Stu hear how afraid she truly was, or they might start to panic. She had to suck it up and stick it out for them. "W-we need to at least get you kids home safely."

Cliff nodded, and with that, they hurried off without saying another word. Right on the lane outside Sunshine Farm, however, they bumped into a familiar dark-haired girl, whose glasses reflected the moonlight eerily. Claire gasped involuntarily before she realized who it was.

"Mary?"

To Claire's slight horror, the librarian looked as though she were about to burst into tears. "Mary? What happened?"

"Claire, Cliff! I was just coming to find you!" she said frantically, nodding at each of them in turn. She looked down at the two children trailing after them and pressed a hand to her forehead in relief, as though a small weight had been lifted. "Oh good, and you found May and Stu! Oh… What a relief…"

"Mary… What's going on?" Cliff asked, genuinely concerned for the girl. His deep brown eyes, normally so calm and kind, were now wide with anxiety. "W-we heard shouting, and…"

Ignoring Cliff's question, Mary suddenly broke down, gripping the front of Claire's shirt in her thin, pale hands. "Oh Claire, I knew it! I knew it but I didn't say anything! Not a word! I am so sorry!"

Oh, great… Not another nonsensical apology. First Rick, and now – And then it hit her.

"Wait, what? Mary, what are you talking about?" Claire asked, but she couldn't hide the sinking feeling deep in the pit of her stomach that she already knew the answer.

"The book…" Mary cried, her glasses misting over with tears, "That old tome I found in the library, under such unusual circumstances. I could understand it more than I let on, and from what I could decipher within the text… It spoke of the creatures, cursed beings."

"Creatures?" Claire echoed. Like the one that followed me home?

Behind her, Stu and May had begun to tremble, and Cliff quickly placed a gentle hand on each of their shoulders to steady them.

Mary began to mumble, half to herself, in a voice much different from any that Claire had ever heard from her. "The terrible creatures in the forest surrounding Mineral Town… It had been that way for thousands of years. Dark magic uncovered from deep within the ground… a curse… it took them over… not even the Harvest Goddess herself can remove it, the curse is so ancient and deeply rooted in the land."

A heavy pause. "…And then, under the blood moon – that is, the total lunar eclipse… that's when the curse is passed on."

"But…" Claire frowned, listening intently to her friend's jumbled words and trying her best to make any sense of it, "How could the Harvest Goddess allow this to happen? I thought she had complete power over the land..."

"Because sometimes," Cliff spoke up from behind them, his voice firm and grave, causing Claire to start, "there are things outside even the Goddess's power to control. Primeval magic too dark, too strong, for even her to try and stop it."

"It… It was all in the book…" Mary added as she glanced over her shoulder frantically, her voice returning to its usual, albeit panicked, state. She quickly shook her head as if to shake her mind clear.

"Anyway, come on, Rick was right, we need to get out of here! Something's terribly wrong! And we need to get May and Stu somewhere safe as soon as possible."

"Rick?" Claire perked up at the mention of his name, though her stomach churned at the thought. "Have you seen him?"

"Not since he left with you and Cliff… Why, where is he? Do you know?"

Claire shook her head regretfully. "He was acting strange… And he ran off after… after we heard the scream."

Mary nodded, her eyes filled with fear. "Yes, about that… Here, come with me, we need to get moving, quickly now! I'll tell you along the way." She swiftly gestured the four forward with a wave of her hand, and together they took off down the dark street as Mary explained the current situation in a rush.

"I-I'm afraid I don't really know what's going on at the moment… After you two and Rick left to find May and Stu, Karen and Gray and I decided to wander the streets of Mineral Town searching for them, and see if we might bump into Officer Harris or someone else on patrol to warn them of the situation. That's when we heard Popuri scream; it was coming from Rose Square, so I think we know where she and Kai are. I just hope they're all right…"

Mary frowned and began walking even faster, the rest struggling to keep up with her. "And I still don't know where Elli and Ann are, we haven't seen them at all…"

Her thoughts were interrupted by another lupine howl. It seemed to come from the opposite end of town, somewhere near the church or the beach.

"What is that?" Stu piped up, half in curiosity and half in fear. "Is it… Is it the monster?" Beside him, May was shaking like a leaf at the sound, and she whipped her head around in all directions as if terrified that some horrific creature would come running at them out of the night. Claire couldn't blame her; she felt the same way, but had to put on a brave face, at least for the children's sake if for no one else.

"I've heard that sound before…" the little raven-haired girl whispered to Claire, barely audible to the group. "The monster that growls outside my window at night. I told you all 'bout it! 'Member?"

Mary paled at the children's comments, but didn't reply. Instead, she tightened her grip on Claire's arm, her fingers turning white with tension.

"We – as in, Karen, Gray, and I – heard Popuri scream not long after we split up again, like I said before, so Karen and Gray went to find out what was going on while I turned back to see what had become of you…"

Cliff tilted his head to give Mary a vaguely puzzled look. "Y-you went to look for us alone? By yourself?"

Mary nodded, a faint blush adding a tinge of color to her pale cheeks. "Gray wanted to accompany me, he was worried about me going off on my own, but I told him I would be fine, that Popuri was the real concern. He was reluctant to leave me… But they said we would meet again at the Poultry Farm if all went well."

At that moment, the group turned the corner at the Poultry Farm and entered the gate, and Mary stopped to let out a sigh of relief at the scene they encountered there. "Oh my, thank the Goddess!"

Popuri, Kai, Karen, and Gray were gathered around the farmhouse porch, seemingly intact but still noticeably shaken. Upon closer inspection, Claire saw that Popuri was seated on the bottom step, her knuckles white as she tightly clenched her skirts in her fists and her vibrant pink curls, practically glowing fuchsia in the moonlight, falling out from their usual restrictive headband into her face. Kai was perched on the balls of his feet next to her, one arm slung over her shoulder as he murmured into her ear, and Karen stroked her friend's magenta hair in a comforting manner.

Gray stood a little further apart from the others, leaning against the peeling wooden porch railing with his arms crossed over his chest, his grim expression revealing a mixed sense of serious thought and genuine concern as he stared off into the night, eyes occasionally darting toward the trio on the steps.

"What's going on?" Claire asked as they approached the other group. "We heard the scream, and then some shouting…" She couldn't bring herself to mention the strange, terrifying howls.

"Popuri… Is she all right?" Cliff added, staring at the girl on the ground with worry.

Karen was the one who responded first. "Yes, Popuri was the one who screamed, but she's all right now… She just had quite the scare."

"Easy for you to say!" Popuri spoke up shrilly, taking everyone by surprise. "You didn't see it!"

"See what?" Claire asked, but her question went unheard by the others as Kai intervened, taking the pink-haired girl's hand in his own and looking her straight in the eye.

"It's okay, Poppy, calm down. You didn't get hurt, and that's what matters."

"What did she see?" Claire repeated, more urgently this time, and after exchanging a glance with the shaken Popuri, he looked back up at the blonde. "…Well," he began, "You know how Popuri and I went off by ourselves to search, down toward Mineral Beach?"

Claire nodded, and he continued, "Obviously, we didn't find the kids there, seeing as you have them right here." He nodded appreciatively at May and Stu, who were each clutching the hands of Cliff and Mary, their eyes wide.

"Nice job finding them, by the way," Karen interjected, the corner of her mouth turned up in a half-smile. "You'll have to tell us all about that."

"Anyway," Kai shot a glance back toward Karen, "We were just heading out from the beach, passing through the square on our way back here, since that's the quickest route. Poppy was just behind me a little ways, we were still looking around for May and Stu… It was all quiet, and then out of nowhere she grabs my shoulder in a freaking death-grip, hitting me and half-whispering, half-yelling about some monster in the trees."

He suppressed a shiver. "I whipped around, didn't see anything, but Poppy says she saw something behind us. Something huge and dark, with piercing golden eyes. So she screamed, and that attracted Karen and Gray's attention."

Claire stifled a gasp as she listened – that sounded like the beast that had followed her home! But why had it decided not to attack the couple?

Gray nodded, looking up from his post up on the porch with a serious look in his eye. Claire had a split-second thought that he was positioned up there as some sort of lookout. "Karen and I were the ones shouting; well, mostly just Karen, actually. Mary had just gone off on her own to look for you and Cliff, even though we told her not to go by herself, it's too dangerous. And we thought something bad had happened to Popuri after she screamed…" He trailed off.

Claire shook her head in agreement – she and Cliff had feared the same thing when they heard it. But it seemed that everyone was fine now, right?

Well, except for Ann and Elli… And Rick, too. A shiver crawled down her spine. They needed to be found, and fast. They weren't safe, even here, especially after Popuri had apparently seen the monster, too. She glanced back at the frightened children with Cliff and Mary in concern.

"And did you see it, too?" she asked Gray. He shook his head, as did Kai and Karen.

"Nobody saw it, except for Popuri."

"But didn't you hear that howling?" Popuri spoke up, her face pale in the light of the full moon. "You had to have heard it, at the very least!"

She gripped Kai's muscular arm in a panic, and Karen quickly wrapped her own arm around her friend in another futile attempt to comfort her as the pinkette continued, "You've gotta believe me, you guys! There's something out there!"

Though nobody responded, Claire could tell by the mutually knowing look in everyone's eyes that they had all heard the spine-chilling howling. Surely, everyone in Mineral Town had heard it.

As if in response, another snarling howl echoed throughout the night, and the group froze in frightened shock.

Her heart beating unnaturally fast, Claire turned back toward Mary, who had been oddly quiet for the entirety of the conversation; she had a feeling that the dark-haired librarian knew exactly what was going on.

"You know what that is, don't you?" she prompted the girl gently. "It was all in that book you showed me, like you said."

"What book?" Karen piped up curiously.

But Mary shook her head vigorously, glancing down toward the children who watched the scene with fear in their innocent eyes. "We have to get May and Stu back to safety," she murmured.

Behind Claire, Cliff nodded. His voice rang out clear, as though the severity of the situation at hand had banished his usual social anxieties. "We heard that same howling from the woods… That's where Claire and I went to find Stu and May. They were by the Goddess Spring; we found them just a little while before we heard Popuri's scream…"

He looked away quickly; Claire noticed that he hadn't mentioned Rick at all.

"Well, we need to figure out what we're going to do now," she spoke up when nobody else said anything, determination blazing in her blue eyes despite her rising fear. "Someone has to take May and Stu back to the Inn so Barley knows they're safe, and then maybe a few of us should go look for Elli and Ann... A-And Rick, too."

"Popuri should stay here," Kai offered at once, nodding at his pink-haired girlfriend. "She's had quite the scare."

To their slight surprise, Popuri glared at him furiously, one that made even someone as smooth as Kai flinch. "I'm not going to just sit at home and wait for all of you to fix everything yourselves! I'm a part of this, too! I-I can't just wait here, not knowing what's going on outside; I don't even know where Rick is!"

At the mention of the pinkette's brother, Karen whipped back around to face Claire, her gaze hard and questioning, betraying no other emotion. "Yeah, that's right – Rick went with you and Cliff when we split up earlier. Where is he?"

From his place on the porch, Gray looked on in interest, his arms still crossed stiffly in front of him. The blonde farmer quickly shook her head, unable to speak up, her eyes wide.

"No!" Popuri abruptly stood up from her spot on the front step and smoothed down her cherry-red skirt angrily. "I can't just stay here without my brother! Rick – where is he?"

Claire and Cliff exchanged an uneasy glance, one that did not go unnoticed by Popuri.

"Where's Rick?" The pinkette asked again shrilly, her eyes widened in incredulity. "Where is my brother?!"

"He went running off after we heard you scream," Cliff finally blurted out, his face red. "He went with me and Claire to look around, after we split off from Karen, Gray, and Mary. He was in the woods with us when we found the kids, and he was acting kinda funny in there, to be honest, and then when we heard the scream and the yelling and everything, he ran off ahead of us into town."

He looked around worriedly, and Claire resisted the urge to take his hand in her own to try and console him. "Haven't any of you seen him yet?"

The entire group shook their heads in unison, their eyes all echoing the same mounting feeling of dread that Claire herself recognized all too well.

"Well, that's why we have to go look right now-" Karen was interrupted by a flashlight shining into their faces through the darkened night, momentarily blinding the group with its unnaturally bright glare.

"What are you all doing out here?"

As the blinding light from the flashlight subsided, everyone turned their heads to find two large, burly figures coming up the drive to the Poultry Farm. It looked like the night safety patrol had found them at last.

"What are you doing outside right now?" Officer Harris repeated, turning the flashlight off and stuffing it into his front pocket; the moon itself provided enough light to see in the open clearing. Gotz stood behind him, looking on questioningly but saying nothing.

"Don't you know there's a town-wide curfew in place? The Mayor made that rule for a reason!"

"What are you doing here?" Karen blurted out accusingly before she could stop herself. The officer turned toward her and gave the young woman a hard stare.

"Gotz and I were on patrol when we heard a lot of noise. Shouting, and such." He took another sweeping look at the group gathered around Popuri's front porch. "We thought someone had gotten hurt, but luckily it looks like nobody did. Though that doesn't diminish the fact that you all shouldn't be out here right now."

"But we don't know that for sure!" Popuri cried, as Kai struggled to keep his girlfriend from leaping at the officer in distress. She brushed him off and continued speaking, her words jumbling as they poured out of her mouth in her rush to explain the situation. "We don't know that nobody's gotten hurt! My brother's somewhere out in town! Elli and Ann, too! We don't know where they are!"

She took a deep, shaky breath. "We were at the Inn when the lights went out because of the storm, and then Barley came over to tell us that May was missing, and when we all went out to look for her, we found that Stu was missing too! We split up, and we ended up finding them, but Rick went running off somewhere, and Elli and Ann haven't been seen at all since we left!"

Officer Harris stared at the pink-haired girl, his eyes widening in an odd combination of interest and disbelief. "Is this true?"

Claire nodded, and quickly went up to the officer to explain the whole story, more clearly and in more detail than Popuri had told. "We found May and Stu, luckily," she finished, gesturing toward the pair of frightened children, "but we need to bring them back to the Inn. Doug and Barley are waiting there for them, and it's been hours already."

"And then we need to find everyone else," Kai added. "They could be in danger – surely you heard the howling, too?"

From the wary looks in their eyes, Claire could tell that Harris and Gotz had indeed heard the strange, terrifying noises in the night.

Officer Harris shook his head vigorously in an effort to clear it, still struggling to process all he had been told in such a short period of time. "All right then, I see we have a bit of a… situation on our hands," the officer declared, taking control. "We'll have to split up into two groups to take care of it. I'll take May and Stu back to the Inn, if anybody wants to come with me. Gotz can take the rest of you to look for whoever's missing; you'll be safer in a group like that, at least."

Claire nodded in agreement, glancing up at the full moon hovering above them. There was absolutely no time to waste.

"Maybe… Popuri and Mary can go with you," she offered. Popuri was obviously exhausted and distraught, and Mary looked no better, as though whatever she had read in that strange book she found in the library was constantly at the back of her mind, eating away at her thoughts and pressing extra anxieties on her, even though she chose not to share them with the others for some reason.

Mary brightened a bit at Claire's suggestion, as though a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders, but Popuri wasn't so content. The pinkette broke free from Kai's grasp and stormed away from him, stomping up to Claire.

"Oh, no! I told you already, I'm going to help look for the others!"

"I'll go with Mary. Popuri can stay with the search party," Gray interjected quickly before Claire could say a word in her defense, and both girls looked up at him gratefully.

"Come on, let's go."

Together, the group set off from the darkened Poultry Farm property into the street, its paved stone surface shining eerily in the light of the moon. Claire hardly dared to breathe; the night air was still, and her heart raced as she listened for any sudden sounds in the trees surrounding them.

They had decided to split up – Officer Harris would take Mary, Gray, and the kids back to the Inn, where Doug and Barley would be awaiting their return in safety, and then Claire, Cliff, Karen, Kai, and Popuri would go with Gotz to search for whoever was left missing.

With any luck, they would swiftly find Rick, Elli, and Ann, and return home without encountering anything else.

"Don't tell Doug that Ann might be missing," Claire whispered into the officer's ear before the two groups split apart, taking opposite paths down the street. "And make sure Mary and Gray don't tell him, either. With any luck, we'll find them and he'll never have to know any different." She didn't think he could bear losing his daughter a second time, but perhaps he would never have to worry about it, if all went well.

Mary met eyes with the blonde before she stepped away, holding hands with both May and Stu, who looked absolutely exhausted from the night's proceedings. Fleetingly, Claire thought that she couldn't blame them. "Stay safe, everyone. And Claire…" the librarian added softly, so that only the blonde could hear, "you know what you're facing now, don't you?"

After a moment's pause, Claire nodded.

She watched the group of five walk away down the moonlit road, and was startled from her musings by another low, haunting howl carried on the wind, and then what sounded like a shouting match behind her.

"What's going on?" The blonde farmer glared at Karen, who turned back to her with a look of utter frustration. Gotz and Cliff looked on nervously, unsure of what to say.

"Kai and Popuri just ran off!" she shouted.

"What?"

Gotz spoke up behind Karen, setting a hand on the young woman's shoulder consolingly, "It's true. Popuri just ran off, said she needed to find Rick immediately. Kai ran after her; he was trying to stop her from leaving. They went off toward Rose Square."

There was no time to stop and think. "Well, we need to follow them!"

The slowly diminishing group of four set off toward the town square, their hurried footsteps echoing loudly against the pavement. Claire ran at the head of the group, and as she stumbled through the square and back onto the street toward the church without fully processing where her feet were taking her, she nearly crashed into someone else in her haste.

"Zack?" Relief shone in the blonde's eyes as the man turned around and she recognized who it was, but it was quickly replaced by a look of horror when she saw him more fully in the moonlight.

Gotz, Karen, and Cliff quickly caught up to her, and stared in shock at the scene before them. "Elli!" Karen exclaimed.

In Zack's arms lay the young nurse Elli, her eyes closed and one arm bleeding heavily, hanging limp at her side. She seemed to be unconscious, or worse. The large man's shirt sleeve was torn, as it had been wrapped around Elli's injury to help stem the bleeding, though Claire could still clearly see the deep red blood soaking through the makeshift bandage.

The redheaded girl Ann ran up behind him, her blue eyes wide, but she soon breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, whew – it's just you guys!"

Claire gawked at her; she looked to be perfectly fine, though quite a bit shaken. Just a few meters behind them, Popuri and Kai stood together in shocked silence, their arms around each other – at least she now knew that they were safe.

"What happened?"

"We were attacked," Zack spoke up seriously, eyebrows furrowed. Beside him, Ann nodded.

"Elli and I searched the church like you said, and we visited Carter to tell him about the situation and ask him whether the kids had visited him, but they hadn't," she explained, still breathless.

"After we left, not too long ago, we bumped into Zack, who was just heading out to begin his patrol. Obviously, he wasn't too happy when he saw us breaking curfew, but before he could really saw anything this… thing, leapt out of the trees right at Elli, just at the other end of the square there. It knocked her down and ripped her arm open, but before Zack and I could really process what was happening, the monster ran off, howling."

Her expression darkened. "Claire, it was huge! A great big hairy snarling beast, with these horrible gold eyes and sharp fangs. It just had to be the thing that attacked me! I swear!"

Claire narrowed her eyes in concentration; combining their story with the story that Popuri and Kai had told back at the Poultry Farm, it seemed that the two groups had just missed each other when they came by Rose Square earlier that night. In fact, the beast had probably watched Popuri and Kai pass by through the trees lining the square, and then had lain in wait until Elli, Ann, and Zack ran through the square before it attacked.

"They found the missing kids, so you don't have to worry about that," Gotz spoke up, motioning toward Claire and Cliff in particular, while the rest of the group was still frozen in horror at the girl's story. "But is Elli okay?"

Zack nodded, looking down at the poor girl in his arms with an expression of concern, ignoring her blood that stained his own clothing. "We were just on our way to the Clinic when we bumped into Kai and Popuri here, looking for Rick, and then you came soon after."

"We need to get moving, then – it looks like Elli needs a doctor as soon as-"

Karen's words were interrupted a second time that night by a loud snarling coming from somewhere to their right, and Claire just noticed a dark flash burst out from the line of trees out of the corner of her eye when Popuri let out a scream.

The blonde farmer whipped around just in time to spot the enormous dark shape of her nightmares approach the group, a distinctly wolf-like creature just as she had feared, its golden eyes burning into her own as time seemed to completely stop.

In another moment that could have lasted minutes or even just mere seconds – Claire's mind felt too frozen in fear to tell the difference – the creature broke eye contact and turned, lunging at the pink-haired girl and her boyfriend standing meters away, too fast for anyone to stop it. Kai grabbed Popuri by the arm and wrenched her away, turning to run, but there was no way they could outrun the dark, malevolent force that came barreling straight at them.

Claire and the others looked on in terror as the monster reared up on its hind legs, slashing its dagger-sharp claws at the couple and growling hungrily.

"No!"

At that second, Rick burst out from seemingly nowhere, running straight at the wolf-like creature with a look of pure, unadulterated horror in his eyes. He dug a hand into his apron pocket, bringing out a long silver knife. "You can't hurt her!"

The dark creature whipped around, snarling as it knocked Popuri aside with a strong paw as easily as though she were a ragdoll, and Rick stared it down before brandishing his silver knife in its face. Claire was so shocked, she could barely process what was happening. Everything seemed to occur in a series of flashes.

The monster howled again…

Zack held Elli tight in his arms, swiftly backing away…

It leaped at Rick, fangs bared…

Cliff grabbed Claire by the hand, his eyes wide with the fear that she herself shared…

A moment's hesitation, and Rick whipped out his knife in one hand, plunging it deep into the creature's chest…

Kai knelt over Popuri's fallen figure as he watched the scene in shocked horror, as did everyone else…

The creature seemed to grow smaller in an instant, coarse hair shortening all over its body, claws and fangs drawing inward, tail disappearing completely, until it morphed into the slumped form of a woman with long, curled pink hair and a huge, bloody smear over the front of her chest.

Rick stared at her, then at the silver knife in his hands. He loosened his grip and the knife plummeted from his grasp, clattering loudly against the blood splattered stones. "No… No, I didn't mean to…"

Popuri heaved herself off the ground with her elbows, somewhat bruised and bleeding but otherwise all right. Her eyes widened in uninhibited disbelief, mirrored by all. Kai tried to pull her back, but she easily broke away from his weakened hold and leaned forward, shaking uncontrollably.

When she spoke, her voice cracked with emotion, whispered as though blown in on the wind from miles away.

"…Mom?"

A/N: Fun Fact – I nearly killed off one of the characters in this chapter (it most likely would have been Elli, or perhaps another less vital villager in this story), but decided against it because I thought it wasn't really necessary for this particular fanfic. And I couldn't bring myself to do it.

-CCM