Under the Blood Moon (The Stargazers Trilogy Book 1) (2 page)

Chapter Two

April 12
th
, 3 p.m.

Eric’s eyes popped open, almost of their own accord. The moon was gone, but massive amounts of steam permeated the area and completely surrounded him. He was awake.

“No!” Eric Tania jerked and sat up covered in sweat. He panicked, as he noticed his bare chest and arms were covered with electrodes. He felt them on his head. His breathing was erratic and several alarms were going off. “Please don’t do this to me.”

A young woman ran into the room wearing a long white lab coat and thin framed glasses. She had on tennis shoes and her light brown hair was up in a bun. She was accompanied by an older man with gray wavy hair, also in a lab coat.

“Get the electrodes off of him now, Sybil! I’ll get the alarms!” The older man ran faster than he looked like he was capable of doing, as he hurried to each machine, resetting it.

The woman ran up to the sweaty younger man. “Come on, Eric! We almost had it that time!”

Eric started angrily pulling the sticky rubber attachments off of him. “I’m tired of this! How long have I been your guinea pig?”

She smiled out of the corner of her mouth and placed her arm on his shoulder. “Since childhood, little bro’.” She grabbed a towel from a nearby table and threw it at him. “Don’t get any sweat on the expensive machines.”

“I’m not doing this again, sis, you know,” he stated with his own grin. “We’re done here.”

Her smile faded as she punched his arm. “Hey! We are getting a breakthrough! You can’t quit now, Eric! The only way you said you would stop, is if…” She stopped in mid-sentence, knowing full well that he was playing with her. “Did we? Did we?”

Shaking his head, he dropped his feet down to the floor and grabbed his shirt from another table. “Yeah, sis. I finished it. I finished the dream.”

* * *

Sybil Tania hugged her brother too tight. She wouldn’t let him breathe, as her hug constricted him. “Hey, sis! Give a guy some air!”

She pulled back and apologized. She pushed her glasses further up on her nose and tried to compose herself. “You know I get excited when we have a breakthrough.”

“I know.”

“So tell me all about it,” the older man said, enthusiastically. He had just finished turning the last alarm off and resetting them. “Don’t worry about the alarms. They went off because you popped up a little too fast, Eric.”

“I figured as much,” Eric replied with a smug look. “I guess you all want to hear how my dream ended. Well, Mom was in it again and she died again. This time, it was set in a really old Israeli village, I do mean village. The huts were made from straw and pitch and much simpler than the Bedouin camps. All the people were dressed in potato sacks. Most of them died.”

“He feels like talking.” Laughing, Sybil looked at the older man. “Dr. Caladasian? Maybe we should get my brother into an examination room, so we can record his story.”

“Excellent idea,” the doctor replied, making a clicking sound. He had an overbite and liked to click his tongue against his teeth. His small inset eyes gave Sybil the creeps when she first met him four years ago. Now she was used to them. That did not stop him from being brilliant. He was the head of research at the Dream Institute in Seattle, Washington. “Eric?” he said. “Go have the nurse prepare you for another examination. You should have the room memorized by now.”

“I have.” Eric let out a frustrated sigh and shot a displeased glance at the doctor and his sister. “Sure. Why not? What are guinea pigs for, anyway?”

He solemnly walked down the corridor toward the examination room. The doctor held Sybil back. “I want to talk to you.”

“What?”

“I know you don’t approve of how we receive our information, but let me assure you that it is essential to curing your brother of his night terrors.”

“They’re not night terrors, doctor,” she uttered, as she headed down the corridor as well. “We discussed this before. I believe in science as much as you do. Maybe more. But Eric has a real gift. He’s always been able to see things through his dreams. It’s gotten stronger recently. That’s why he agreed to take part in these tests. He wants to find out what’s going on, just as much as we do.”

“It may just be a bad dream,” the doctor said. “Maybe he had seen a totally eclipsed moon when he was young, one which assumed an unusual color, like the color of red. If so, one cannot assume that a red eclipse will have a prophetic meaning.”

“I will not be content until I know for sure.”

“Does he know that we found a way to record his actual dreams?” Dr. Caladasian spoke quietly, to make sure no one else could hear him.

Sybil’s anger flared. “You said you weren’t going to try that on Eric! In fact, I believe you gave me your word you wouldn’t use it!”

“Sybil! Use the brains that you have! He was the perfect subject for the test, and I think you’ll like to know that I recorded this session that we just finished today.” Dr. Caladasian said, “Everyone is talking about the blood moon. Your brother makes contact with it. We need to know why. I think it is a nightmare.” His smile was devious and iniquitous.

“And I think he is a messenger to the world that something bad is coming.” Sybil was torn between the loyalty to her brother and the desire to see what was recorded.

He placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “We are obligated to know.”

He raised his eyebrows and grinned. “Want to see the film?”

The scientist in her overpowered any sibling love. “Alright. We check the recording together, or not at all. Deal?”

“Deal.” They shook hands. “Okay, listen. The full moon following the harvest moon frequently is called the hunter’s moon, though the term blood moon occasionally is used. A totally eclipsed moon often has a red appearance, though the colors orange, yellow, gray, and even black are possible. Because the most common color of a totally eclipsed moon is red, in recent years people increasingly have called an eclipsed moon a blood moon.”

“I understand.”

He had a sparkle appear in his eyes, as his smile grew. “We’ve sealed the deal, my dear! We’ll take notes in the examination room as we observe the scan. Then later, we’ll compare them to see how they match up. Mum’s the word. Neither of us can tell anyone, not even Eric. It’s completely experimental, so we might not actually be able to see Eric’s dream as he saw it. The possibility though, is simply delicious. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Sybil laughed. “We’ll wait and see.”

Chapter Three

April 13
th
, 9 a.m.

Sybil sat with Dr. Caladasian in the hospital cafeteria. “Did you hear the news today?” she asked.

“No. What’s going on?”

“The Ukraine launched an operation to retake government buildings from pro-Russian separatists in the east side of their country today. The separatists had seized many buildings. As of yet, no troops have moved in. After flouting the Ukrainian government’s deadline to lay down their arms, the Russian government is warning the crisis could spark a civil war. The Ukrainian government asked the United Nations to authorize a peacekeeping force.”

“Those kinds of wars happen all the time.”

“This is worse. The American people should be prepared for the Wrath of God. We do not have all the time in the world before the Battle of Armageddon erupts that could kill off much of the human race on Earth.”

“Slow down girl,” he said. “You don’t know that.”

“Eric’s dreams are warnings.” She looked him in the eye. “The end is coming soon.”

“Even if Eric’s dreams are a warning, you don’t know when such a disaster would strike.”

“Well, whether 2015 or 2025, the world as we know it will end.”

“What we need is a world leader,” he said. “A friend of mine from military school later became a general with the US Army and if he is still alive, I do believe he can help solve the world’s problems. He once helped the Pentagon organize a German weapon system project and made it operational within a very short six months!”

“Somebody has to do something about the evil in this world as well.”

“I think he is the man for that, too.”

“If they don’t find someone quickly, this may be the beginning of the end. At any time, America will put boots on the ground. When they do, God help Russia.”

“If you want to get spooked, radical claims by many religious theorists is that a massive asteroid or comet, large enough to spell the end of the human race, will soon collide with Earth. Although the details are still a little fuzzy and the claims lack credentials, the massive popularity of the prediction has forced NASA to respond. I choose to ignore all of it, including that there is some kind of spiritual connection of Eric’s dreams to end times,” he said.

“There has to be something to it,” she said. “Both a solar eclipse and a total lunar eclipse are predicted soon.”

“I know. I read an article on it. It described both a total solar eclipse and total lunar eclipse soon. The sun turning to darkness is when the moon is directly between the Earth and sun is a total solar eclipse. The moon turning to blood is when the Earth is directly between the sun and the moon. The Earth’s shadow falling on the moon is a total lunar eclipse.”

“You know so much about it. I’m impressed.”

“Don’t make too big of a deal out of it. NASA says that there are about two lunar eclipses per year, but they are so subtle they’re barely visible and pretty much go unnoticed. Other eclipses cast a partial shadow on the moon, but don’t give it that blood moon color that only total eclipses do. They come around, on average, less than once a year.” The doctor patted her hand. “Don’t worry your pretty little head over it.”

“No worries.” She smiled a faint smile and tried not to worry.

“I’ve got to get back on the floor. I have other patients to care for as well as Eric.” The doctor stood and walked out.

Sybil followed him. “I’m going to go look at Eric’s last MRI.”

* * *

Out of nowhere, a loud thunder clapped and it began pouring rain outside. Suddenly, there was a loud clicking noise, like someone was throwing rocks at her car. Sybil was driving home from work when it happened.

Dents were forming all over her car. She saw that hail the size of golf balls was hitting her car. She swore. “It’s hailing. What next?”

Cars were skidding all over the street, some actually running into each other or skidding off the road.

Sybil gripped her steering wheel and held her car steady as she watched cars crashing around her.

She forgot that she had her radio on until she heard the announcer say, “We need to call a state of emergency.”

Sybil could not help but think of Eric’s dreams. She sensed that the disasters in the dreams were connected to the hail storm.

She drove home at twenty miles per hour as she listened to the hail stones bash her car like it was nothing. “Oh God, I think I need to learn to pray. Lord, take this storm away before I have to go back to work tomorrow.”

Chapter Four

April 14
th
, 3 p.m.

Eric had spent several uncomfortable hours telling and retelling his dream as he remembered it to his sister and the doctor. All three were astonished that every detail of each telling, was exactly the same as the other times.

Dr. Caladasian looked at Eric suspiciously. “Eric. I have been involved in dream studies for many years now and never has anyone been able to retell their dreams the exact same way, each and every time.”

“I’m not lying, if that’s what you saying!” Eric’s breathing was rapid and his heart was racing.

Sybil stood between the two men, hoping that their testosterone would take over. “Gentlemen! Please! We are not here to measure anything, but the dream. I would suggest we take five to regain our composure and realize why we’re here in the first place.”

She didn’t keep her voice raised, which had a more calming effect on the two men. They both looked ashamed for the way they acted and she smiled when she recognized that fact.

Dr. Caladasian forced a smile and removed himself from the room.

Sybil turned toward her brother and placed her hands gently on his shoulders. “We’re doing this to help you, Eric. It’s not going to help anything if you bark back and the big dog. I told you how he gets. He doesn’t believe in anything, unless it’s right there poking him in the gut.”

Eric couldn’t look his sister in the eyes and seemed extremely anxious. “Look, sis. I can’t explain why I can recite the dream with every detail, all the time. You have to believe that I’m not faking this!”

“I do. I believe you,” she replied reassuringly. She then looked around, to make sure they were really alone. “I have to tell you something, but you have to keep it between us. Promise?”

He nodded.

Tightening her lips, she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We have a way to record actual dreams now. It’s just like watching a movie.”

“Recording?” He broke out in a sweat as if in a panic. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“Because, Eric, we never tested it on humans. Until you.” She knew that he was going to freak out more, so she did her best to calm him down. “I’m blood. I’m not going to do anything to hurt or humiliate you, Eric. You have to trust me on that.”

“Oh yeah! Sure!” He started ranting and waving his arms around. “Now you tell me this! What the heck did you experiment on before me? Mice?”

She remained silent, which led him to believe he was right. “Listen, Eric. We had no idea what the mice were dreaming about. It was beyond weird and incomprehensible. That’s why we needed a brain that we could actually get video we might be able to understand.”

Eric shook his head and felt like a guinea pig. “I don’t know, Syb.”

“Eric. Can you imagine how many people this could help, if it turns out to be a success? This will revolutionize how we interpret dreams. This is going to be an extremely useful tool for psychologists and psychiatrists. Think of it, Eric! You could have your name immortalized in a published paper as being the first ever human to undertake this experiment!”

He started to smile and looked up at the ceiling as if he was picturing his name in lights.

She looked up with him and smiled as she nodded. “All you have to do is allow us to look at the video.”

“Very nice, Sybil.” The sarcastic tone of the familiar voice came from behind the siblings.

A very irritated Dr. Caladasian was standing behind them, with his arms crossed in front of him. He was tapping his foot impatiently. “Oh the best laid plans of mice and men. Eh, Sybil?”

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but he has a right to be involved in the viewing. He also has the right to tell us to go jump in a lake if he wants to. After all, it is the inside of Eric’s head that we will be monitoring. I want to include him. Wouldn’t you say that it’s more than fair to do so… Doctor?”

In spite of the fact that he was angry with Sybil, for betraying his trust, he said that he knew she was right. He just wanted as few as people as possible to know about their experiment. Just in case.

“Other than Eric, mum’s the word.”

“Agreed.”