Full Moon House

“Melody, wake up,” Craig said while shaking his sister.

“Are we there?” Melody asked, opening her eyes.

“Not quite. There’s no way to drive through these trees, so we have to walk the rest of the way.” Craig told her.

Melody gets out of the car and helps their friend Mitchell with the recording equipment. Once everything is out of the car, the three of them head down the path through the woods. The path is well-lit, and the woods are welcoming. Not at all what they were expecting from the stories they’ve heard. They can tell this is a well cared for trail.

“This isn’t promising at all. A brightly lit, well-maintained trail does not make for a good paranormal show.” Melody said.

“It’ll be fine. We still have to get to the house. Based on what we have heard, it’s bound to be creepy.” Mitchell reassured her. “You two go ahead and start talking about the house. I’ll record.”

Melody and Craig start walking ahead of Mitchell. Once he gives them the go-ahead, Melody starts. “Hey y’all! It’s your girl, Mel, and my wonderful brother, Craig, here for another episode of The Echos Between! This time, we are heading to the last known location of Full Moon House. Craig, please tell these fine folks the lore surrounding Full Moon House!” She finishes looking over at her brother.

Craig turns toward the camera and starts talking. “Full Moon House originated in a small cul-de-sac in Michigan. About ten years ago, it disappeared during a full moon and reappeared the next morning in the middle of the woods about 30 miles away. No one knew what had happened or how an entire house had vanished and reappeared overnight. The police investigated, and it seemed the house was mostly in the same condition as before it disappeared. However, the inhabitants of the house were never found. The house remained in those woods until the next full moon, when it once again vanished, only to be found the next morning in a new location. There have been various rumors spreading about the house over the past ten years. Some say the house is haunted, and the ghosts move the house every moon cycle. Others claim demons come and relocate the house every full moon. There have been others before us who have investigated the house. Some were even brave enough to spend the night inside. None have ever been seen again. The full moon is tomorrow, and we are going to do something we have never done before on our show. We will be live-streaming our time at Full Moon House. Tonight, we will be staying in the house to get a feel for it. Tomorrow we will be setting up a tent outside the house to watch and see what happens during a full moon. Is it ghosts, demons, or something worse?” Craig nods at Mitchell to stop recording.

“That would have been so much creepier if these woods weren’t so beautiful,” Melody said.

“It was good. When we get to the house, I will edit and post it on the website. Then we can set up the cameras for the live stream tomorrow.” Mitchell said.

Once they get to the center of the woods, the path ends. Mitchell checks his map and leads them towards where the house should be. Once they make it to the house, they are all surprised by how normal it looks. It was a two-story house with an attached garage and white siding. The roof looked new, and the windows appeared to be in perfect condition. They were expecting the house to look more torn up and uncared for. They walked up to the front door, and Mitchell rang the doorbell.

“Why?” Craig asked.

“I swear if someone answers the door, I’m leaving,” Melody said.

They waited almost a full minute for something to happen, and when nothing did, they opened the door. The inside of the house was not as nice as the outside. Broken furniture was everywhere, and there were dark stains everywhere. Mitchell pulled his camera back out.

“I wasn’t expecting this. I’m going to start recording.” He said.

Craig immediately gets into character. “We just got to the house. The outside was beautiful, looked like a normal, unassuming house. Inside, it’s an absolute disaster.” He gestures towards Melody, who is wandering around the living room.

“Guys, I think this is blood.” She says, kneeling down by a wall.

Mitchell takes the camera over to where she is and zooms in on the wall. “I think you might be right, Mel.” He said.

Melody gets up and runs out of the house. Mitchell pans the camera back to Craig, who is barely holding it together.

“It seems like there are bloodstains all over the main floor. Let’s see what’s upstairs.” Craig said, turning to head up to the second floor.

Upstairs, they continued recording in silence. There were two bedrooms, a bathroom, and what appeared to be a study. All were covered with bloodstains.

Craig turned to Mitchell, “I don’t think we should stay the night inside the house.”

“I agree,” Mitchell responded. “Let’s go find Mel.”

Mitchell turned off the camera, and they both headed back outside to find Melody, who was sitting on the grass a few feet away from the house. The three of them sat in silence for a while, just looking at the house. They had been going to haunted locations for years, but this was the first time they had ever found something that felt so unsettling.

Melody finally spoke, “I think we should go home.”

“Absolutely not!” Craig yelled. “We need this sis. I understand it’s an uncomfortable situation, but this is exactly what we need to get more viewers.”

“I guess. I mean, you’re right. There is no way I am staying inside that house, though.” Melody said.

“Agreed. Let’s go get the tent, and we will just spend the day editing this and preparing for the live stream tomorrow.” Mitchell said.

They went back to the car and got the tent. When they got back to the house, Mitchell set up the tent about 20 feet away. Melody took the cameras and set them up around the perimeter of the house. While she was doing that, Mitchell and Craig worked on editing the video. Once Melody got back, they watched the final edit, and when they all agreed it was perfect, they posted it to their website. The trio spent the rest of the evening planning for the live stream. It would start at 7 pm, an hour before sunset.

The next morning, Craig checked the website as soon as he woke up. He was surprised by the number of views they got just from the one video. He woke up Mitchell so they could look through the comments together. Most of them were people expressing their disappointment at not staying the night in the house. There was a strange comment from a user called FullMoonMan.

FullMoonMan: Hey, nice video. I don’t blame you for not staying the night. I do, however, strongly suggest you all leave before sunset.

“Look there’s a link to a news article,” Craig said while clicking the link.

The article was from a town where the house had been seen a few months earlier. It was about a man who was found unconscious and covered in blood on the outskirts of town. It appeared as if he had been attacked by a wild animal. He claimed a wolf attacked him, but the wounds appeared too large to have been caused by any known wolves in the area.

“What do you think it means?” Craig asked.

“I’m honestly not sure, but I don’t think we should tell Mel about this. She’s already freaked out.” Mitchell responded.

When Melody woke up, they read her some of the comments and then spent the day getting ready for the stream. Around 6 pm, they grabbed their cameras and headed to the house. Melody and Craig stood in front of the door.

“Lets do this!” Melody yelled.

“Ready to bring back our show?!” Craig said.

Mitchell raised his camera, “Action!” he yelled.

“Hey y’all, this is Melody and Craig outside of Full Moon House. We have five cameras set up around the perimeter of the house. As usual, our loyal cameraman Mitchell will be following us every step of the way. Craig and I also both have head cams, so you will see what we see. Absolutely nothing will be missed tonight!” Melody said, smiling at the camera.

“We have approximately one hour until sunset. This will be the first time the house’s disappearance is caught on camera. Finally, the world will know what happens every full moon. Now, I know a lot of you were disappointed we did not stay in the house last night. To make it up to you, I will be staying in the house during sunset.” Craig said.

“WHAT?” Melody yelled. “You didn’t tell me you were planning this.”

“I knew you would fight me on it, so I waited until the stream,” Craig explained.

She looked at Mitchell. “Did you know he was planning this?”

Mitchell just nodded in response.

“Fine, enjoy watching my idiot brother die on stream, I guess!” She yelled with tears in her eyes.

“I’m sorry Mel. I just really want to know what happens inside the house. I will be fine.” He reassured her.

Melody stared at her brother, then pulled him into a hug. She took his hand, and they walked inside the house together.

“20 minutes until sunset. I love you. You’re an idiot.” Melody said, hugging him one more time before leaving the house and walking back to Mitchell.

The two of them sat down and watched the sunset in silence. Eventually, Mitchell nudged her, signaling it was time.

“Okay, everyone! Just a few minutes until sunset. My brother is inside the house, and I will be documenting everything out here.” Melody said.

They stood watching the house as the sun went down.

The clearing was momentarily plunged into darkness until their solar lanterns came on. Before Melody could say anything, they heard screaming coming from the house. She looked at Mitchell and pulled out her phone to watch the stream from inside the house.

They saw Craig inside the quickly shrinking house. He was frantically trying to get back to the door, but the house was shrinking too rapidly. Everything in the house was taking on a flesh-like appearance. Melody looked up and noticed the house was easily a quarter of its size five minutes ago, and it now appeared to be covered in hair.

She screamed.

Mitchell couldn’t take his eyes off the phone screen. He watched as Craig was slowly crushed inside the flesh house. When he couldn’t stand to look any longer, he looked up to see what Melody was screaming about.

In front of them, where the house used to be, was now a large wolf.

Mitchell made eye contact with the wolf, who started running towards them. “Melody, run!” He yelled, grabbing her arm.

He started running, dragging Melody behind him. He could hear her crying, “He’s dead. My brother is dead!” but he didn’t stop running. He glanced behind them and saw how quickly the wolf was catching up to them.

Mitchell knew he had to make a choice.

“I am so sorry, Mel.” He said, letting go of her arm.

Melody fell to the ground screaming as the wolf descended on her, tearing her apart with his big, sharp teeth.

Mitchell, trying to ignore the sounds of his friend being ripped apart behind him, ran faster in the direction of the car. When he got to the car, he turned towards the woods and saw the wolf running at him. He quickly got inside and started it up. He sped out of the parking lot and down the road. He drove for what felt like an eternity, but it was only two hours. Pulling over to the side of the road, he finally let himself cry.

His friends were gone. The two best friends he had ever had. He lost so much equipment because there was no way he would ever set foot in those woods again. Thankfully, he had his backup laptop in the car. Mitchell decided to check the website. The screen was flooded with notifications. They had never had this many views before.

It wasn’t worth losing his friends, though. Mitchell realized he was still streaming. He grabbed the camera he had thrown on the passenger seat and set it up on the dashboard facing him.

“Hey, it’s Mitchell. I’m on the other side of the camera this time. The house turns into a wolf on the full moon, I guess. I don’t know. It sounds crazy, but I saw it. You all saw it. It ate Mel. Craig was crushed to death. We solved the mystery of Full Moon House, but lost everything in the process. I hope you all enjoyed our last episode.”

Mitchell ended the stream, that was the last time anyone had heard from him.