MOCASSINS
Episode 2 — The Stranger
Salamander stared at the message again.
You shouldn’t have followed me.
Her fingers tightened around her phone.
The stranger knew she had followed them.
But how?
Salamander looked toward the alley.
It was quiet now.
Too quiet.
She slipped her phone into her pocket and opened her notebook.
Under the two messages, she wrote:
Who are you?
Then she paused.
That wasn’t the question that bothered her most.
The real question was:
Why me?
She closed the notebook.
Before leaving, Salamander looked once more at the photograph she had taken.
The stranger’s face was still blurred.
But the silver chain around their wrist was clear.
A small crescent moon hung from it.
And behind the stranger was the old sign:
THE SECOND MOON.
Salamander knew the place.
Everyone in Morrow Hill knew about the old bookstore in Lantern Row.
It had been there for decades.
Some people said it was simply an old bookstore.
Others said strange things happened there.
Salamander had never believed the rumors.
Until now.
She started walking home.
Every few steps, she looked behind her.
Nobody followed.
At least, nobody she could see.
When she reached the house, she found Sloan in the sitting room.
He looked up.
“You’re late.”
“I stopped somewhere.”
Sloan frowned.
“Where?”
Salamander hesitated.
“Nowhere important.”
Her father studied her face for a moment.
Then he looked away.
Salamander noticed something strange.
He seemed nervous.
She wondered if he knew something.
She almost asked.
But she remembered the message.
Do you remember what happened?
She went upstairs instead.
Inside her room, Salamander locked the door.
She took out the folded paper she had found inside her textbook.
She placed it on the desk.
For several seconds, she simply stared at it.
Then she unfolded it.
There was only one word.
MORROW.
Salamander’s heart skipped.
Morrow.
Morrow Hill?
She turned the paper over.
Nothing.
She examined the edges.
Nothing.
She held it under the light.
Still nothing.
Then she remembered the photograph.
The alley.
The stranger.
The sign.
THE SECOND MOON.
She opened her phone and zoomed into the photograph.
Something caught her attention.
Near the bottom of the image was a faint metallic shape lying on the ground.
Salamander enlarged it.
A key.
She stared at the screen.
“Where did that come from?”
She checked the photograph again.
The key was definitely there.
Salamander grabbed her notebook and wrote:
KEY — CRESCENT MOON?
She zoomed in further.
There it was.
A crescent-moon engraving.
The same symbol as the stranger’s necklace.
She suddenly heard a noise outside her bedroom.
Salamander froze.
Footsteps.
Someone was walking down the hallway.
She quickly closed her notebook and slipped the folded paper into her pocket.
The footsteps stopped outside her door.
Silence.
Salamander held her breath.
Then—
Knock.
Knock.
“Salamander?”
It was Shaun.
She exhaled.
“Yeah?”
“Dad wants everyone downstairs.”
“Coming.”
She waited until Shaun left.
Then she looked at the photograph one more time.
The key.
The stranger.
The Second Moon.
The mysterious message.
And the word:
MORROW.
None of it made sense.
But Salamander had learned something about mysteries.
When several strange things appeared at the same time, they were rarely unrelated.
She slipped her phone into her pocket.
Then she noticed something she hadn’t seen before.
At the very edge of the photograph was a tiny symbol.
Two crescent moons.
Salamander stared at it.
“Two moons…”
Her mind immediately went to one person.
Grams.
She didn’t know why.
But suddenly, she felt that her grandmother might know more than she had ever admitted.
Salamander picked up her notebook.
Tomorrow, she would visit Grams.
But first, there was one more thing she needed to do.
She needed to find The Second Moon.
And she knew exactly where to start looking.
Lantern Row.
To be continued…
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