Moon Diamond, Anna P [epub e reader TXT] 📗

because she claimed it wasn’t that serious. When their parents forced her to go, it turned out that if she had let it go any longer, she would have needed surgery.
Mariah arranged her cowboy hat on her head, readjusted her belt, and then vaulted onto Cary.
“Show off,” muttered Seamus, shaking his head. He raced Jupiter over to the fence and back again. He was about to do it again, when a shout from the house made him stop.
“Kids! Come in, and do your homework!” called Seamus’ mom.
Seamus raced back to the barn and took off Jupiter’s tack before letting him out to graze. Mariah came in just as he was opening the door.
“I suppose your endless pockets have another item, do they?” he asked. Mariah stuck her tongue out at him.
“What does it matter to you? I like sparkly things for my projects; I don’t just keep them around the house. And it’s in my hand, not my pocket.” She held it up to Seamus in defiance and set in on the edge of the stall. He rolled his eyes and started inside for lunch, probably macaroni and cheese, Tera’s favorite.
As he turned around to say something to Mariah, something caught his eye. Mariah was taking off Cary’s tack and temporarily abandoned the diamond on the stall. It was glowing an eerie bright blue.

Chapter Two
Seamus groaned as he woke up. He just heard a chicken squawking in the yard. Ever since he was eight, it had been his job to go out and check the coop and fix any damage when something like this happened. A few years later, their parents made Mariah go out too, but she always dragged her feet whenever possible.
“Shut up, it’s nearly midnight!” shouted Mariah, loud enough that she woke the rest of the family.
“Mariah, just because you can hear it doesn’t mean that you have to wake up the rest of us!” called Seamus from the other room, even though he was already awake.
“Mariah Alexia Snow!” said Mrs. Snow from the other room, “how many times to I have to tell you to use your inside voice? And that goes for you, too, Seamus Daniel!”
“Shut up, it’s nearly midnight!” Mariah whispered, loud enough only for Seamus to hear from the next room over.
Mrs. Anita Snow was not the twins birth mother. Their birth mother, Mrs. Caroline Snow, had died in a fatal car accident when the twins were only six months old. She herself was old compared to other children’s mothers, but she was still too young to die.
It was only four years later that Bryan Snow had married the twins step-mother, Anita (who, in fact, was not evil at all and was actually Caroline Snow’s sister) who had their other four children.
Most people that the children told the story to thought that it was just wrong to marry your deceased wife’s sister and considered the whole Snow family in general, freaks. Even Mariah’s best friend, Nineé, was in this category. But, then again, Nineé was one to agree with whatever everyone else thought.
Seamus rolled over in bed and sat up. He could hear the chickens in the backyard making sure that everyone knew that there was something in there that wasn’t supposed to be there. He hated that sound.
Seamus wearily got up and turned on his light to grab a lightweight jacket. He walked down the hall to Mariah’s room. While his room was already perfectly neat, he could barely find a path through all of the clothes, shoes, papers, and whatever else that was unknown (and that he really didn’t want to know) on Mariah’s floor.
Mariah groaned and put the pillow over her head.
“Get up.” he said prodding her.
“I’m not asleep, I’m resting my eyes.” He threw the covers off the bed.
“Come on, if we hurry, maybe we can catch whatever it is.” Mariah groaned in response and got up to get her shoes. She grabbed her tiny diamond that she had found the day before. Seamus rolled his eyes.
“What?” Mariah asked defensively. “I feel like I need it.” Seamus responded by walking out the door. Mariah hurried to catch up. He hadn’t told her about the diamond glowing, he himself didn’t exactly believe it, and Mariah would just think he was being ridiculous.
Even though they ran out of the door, they were too late. The full moon shone down on a bloody scene: a raccoon was running off into the night, carrying one of the family’s hens off with it. The rest of the chickens were sending it off with sufficient squawking to wake the rest of the county.
Mariah instantly ran towards the raccoon, trying to make it drop the chicken. They couldn’t afford a raccoon getting the taste of chicken. Seamus went to the coop to close up any place that the coon might get back in. A few minutes later, Mariah came back with the chicken in her hand. He was only relieved that she got it before the raccoon ate it.
“Dead,” she said sadly. “I thought maybe I could get to it before it died, but no. I should have grabbed my air rifle.”
“With that amount of lost blood, I think that it would just about be a miracle if it was still alive and stayed alive,” he replied.
Seamus went back to his work. A dead chicken wasn’t that much of a concern, they had plenty more. What was more of a concern was the fact that there was a coon who liked chicken and knew how to get it. Maybe we should keep Jake out here after all. Seamus thought. A dog surely would help.
Mariah seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
“I keep telling Mom and Dad that we need a guard dog. Not Jake, a proper guard dog like a Golden Retriever or something like that.”
“What’s wrong with Jake?” Seamus asked, insulted.
“Hmm, let’s think,” Mariah said sarcastically. “He’s as deaf as a…as a something that’s deaf for one thing. He can hardly see for another, and he’s so old he can barely walk. Is that enough reasons for you?”
“Being old isn’t his fault.”
“Did I say it was?” Mariah answered coolly. She didn’t wait for an answer and walked away. Seamus shook his head and turned back to his work. He knew Mariah was just frustrated with the whole situation, but it bugged him that she had to take it out on everyone else. It wasn’t even ten minutes later when Mariah came running up.
“I thought you were supposed to be shooting that raccoon,” said Seamus.
Mariah ignored him.
“There’s something wrong here.”
“Did it cross your mind that it might be the fact that a chicken was just killed?” he asked. “Or maybe is it that there’s a mass-murderer hiding in the bushes?”
Mariah shook her head, Seamus’ sarcasm was clearly wasted on her.
“I think we should go inside.” She took out her little diamond.
Seamus stood up and eyed the diamond with disdain.
“Well I’m not going in now,” he said firmly, “I haven’t finished inspecting yet, and I won’t go in till I’m done. You know how much trouble we’ll be in if this isn’t fixed.” Mariah held up the little diamond to look at it when there was an odd, ruby red light in the sky. Mariah’s eyes grew wide. What was going on?
“I told you so,” she said.
Seamus looked uneasily around wondering if maybe they should go inside.
Suddenly, as Seamus watched, the light grew brighter and brighter, dazzling his eyes and nearly making him go blind. It was nearly the size of a small sun, and all of a sudden, the light grew so bright that he couldn’t see a thing. He couldn’t remember if he had closed his eyes or if the light had blinded him for a moment, but all he could see was a blood red light. Although he wasn’t superstitious, he was almost positive that this couldn’t be good at all.
Mariah said something, but the light seemed to make Seamus deaf as well as blind. It was as if he could hear the ocean rushing in his ears, so loud that it was painful. It felt as if his ears were bleeding. He tried to cover his ears but his hands seemed glued to his sides.
He fought against the force holding him, whatever it was. His mind had gone blank with panic and fear so he couldn’t think.
And then, suddenly, it stopped. Seamus stumbled after the force suddenly vanished. The light dimmed and then vanished, causing red spots of light to appear in Seamus’ vision for many moments after it had left.
The moon was the only light.

“I think that the word ‘peculiar’ would be a good term for last night,” said Mariah.
“How about ‘freakishly strange, abnormal, and scary’?”
“Too long. It needs to be shorter.”
“I think that ‘freakishly strange, abnormal, and scary’ is the perfect length.”
“Well, I disagree. It doesn’t really matter, anyway,” Mariah replied rather haughtily.
They were sitting alone at the kitchen table peeling carrots for lunch later. Their mom was out in the garden, Andra and Missy were playing with their rabbits, and Tera and Vector were undoubtedly planning their next attack. One could never be too careful in the Snow home.
“You didn’t tell anyone, did you?” asked Seamus.
“No, did you?”
“No, and I don’t think that we should. Everyone would just think that we’re insane. Who knows, they may ship us off to some insane asylum.”
“And I’m still hoping that it was all a dream,” said Mariah darkly.