Entry 12 by Mikaela Miyamoto

Dear Dreadful Diary,

I’ve discovered even more about Edward and my mistakes tonight. It’s even worse than I’d been led to believe. When I arrived at his home I had to double check that I had the right address. It appeared so run down and overgrown with weeds. The paneling along the outside was covered in dust and dirt and the roof seemed almost caved in. It was as if no one had lived in it for decades. I had half a mind to leave right then and there but I could picture Edward’s sad face in my mind and decided to push through. I cautiously knocked on the door and held my breath. A sigh of relief escaped when the door opened and a smiling and bright Edward was behind it, no more feelings of dread infiltrating my mind. He walked me inside to the living room where a slightly stained and saggy couch sat. He’d carefully draped a large blanket along the back and the pillows seemed to have been recently fluffed, although one was currently leaking stuffing. He gestured for me to sit and so I did. I had to position myself carefully to avoid the springs I could feel trying to poke through the fabric, but when he sat down and put his arm around me it was quite cozy. He pulled up “Hocus Pocus” on his static-y old television. I shouldn’t complain much though, we didn’t keep those in our house. My grandmother didn’t care for them and told us to focus our time on things like reading and studying. He’d even set a small candle and a bowl of a snacks on the table in front of us. He’d really tried his hardest to make this a special night for us. Which made me feel all the more horrible that I had to break things off at the end of it. He seemed a bit wary about letting me wander anywhere on my own. Making sure to provide me with water or tea so I wouldn’t have to get up myself. I was finally able to escape when I excused myself to use the restroom. He couldn’t follow me there. But on my way to it I began to smell this horrible stench. As if something had been rotting or decaying for quite some time. I followed my nose which led to a room with a locked door. A trail of ants seemed to disappear underneath it. I used a quick incantation to unlock it and carefully pushed it open so as not to make a noise. When I opened the door I couldn’t help the gasp I let out. There on a rusted bed lay a dead body. Maggots and other creepy critters had seemed to make a home inside of it. Crawling around the limbs, burrowing into the soft flesh, traveling in and out of the holes scattered throughout the mattress and body like little tunnels to connect the two. It appeared to have been dead for a while. Above the bed where the body lay was a symbol, a spell had been left here to preserve the body. It wasn’t doing a very good job, but it was good enough that I recognized the body lying on the bed belonged to Edward. At some point he had appeared behind me. He let out a long sigh before saying, “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. But you’ve been keeping secrets too. I know who and /what/ you are, Luna. But now that all of the secrets are out in the open, we can finally be together! FOREVER.” All I could do in that moment was nod and mumble something about needing time to process the information. He gave an understanding nod, then quietly led me back to the front door and waved goodbye looking smaller and smaller as I flew home. I don’t know where to go from here Diary. Something must be done. And I must be in deep, deep trouble. I’ll spend the rest of the night figuring out how to proceed. Perhaps there’s a way I can contact my sister or mother for help. There must be a loophole. Until tomorrow, if there is still a tomorrow for me.

Love,

Luna the Lively