Blood Moon Read online

  Copyright © 2017 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

  Darby Creek

  A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  241 First Avenue North

  Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

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  Images in this book used with the permission of: © Nattanon Tavonthammarit/Shutterstock.com (headlights); © iStockphoto.com/kirstypargeter (moon); backgrounds: © iStockphoto.com/AF-studio, © iStockphoto.com/blackred, © iStockphoto.com/Adam Smigielski.

  Main body text set in Janson Text LT Std 12/17.5. Typeface provided by Adobe Systems.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Kreie, Chris, author.

  Title: Blood moon / by Chris Kreie.

  Description: Minneapolis : Darby Creek, [2017] | Series: Midnight ; 1 | Summary: “A road trip goes south as three best friends drive along the Pacific Coast Highway under a blood moon. Will the mysterious car that is following them lead to deadly danger?”— Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016025932 (print) | LCCN 2016037653 (ebook) | ISBN 9781512427721 (lb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781512431025 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781512427929 (eb pdf)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Supernatural—Fiction. | Automobile travel—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.K8793 Bl 2017 (print) | LCC PZ7.K8793 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025932

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  1-41497-23358-8/17/2016

  9781512434828 ePub

  9781512434835 ePub

  9781512434842 mobi

  To Tricia,

  my constant supporter and cheerleader

  CHAPTER 1

  Mateo looked over the snack aisle. His eyes surveyed row upon row of chips, cheese puffs, crackers, flavored popcorn, and any other unhealthy thing a person might ever want to stuff down their throat. He had the munchies, and health food wasn’t even part of the equation. He was in here for junk, and picking the right junk food at any given point in time was an art form. He factored in his mood, his drink choice, even the temperature and humidity outside. He finally zeroed in on two options: spicy tortilla chips or pork rinds. Decisions, decisions.

  Priya and Kristy were on the opposite side of the gas station, grazing through the candy bars. Mateo was always partial to salty over sweet. He grabbed the tortilla chips and walked to the soda case.

  On his way, he glanced outside the store at Carl, who was kicking back in the jeep, waiting for the rest of them to finish. It had taken Mateo over a year to rebuild that jeep, and he had done it almost singlehandedly. It was his baby—and his ticket out of Middleton. Mateo was going to be an automotive engineer. That was a done deal. It had been his dream to design cars ever since he was a kid. Now that he was just a little over a year away from college, Mateo was determined to learn as much as he could about cars, get a scholarship to Cal Poly University, and leave his little barrio behind for good.

  Tonight was the maiden voyage of the jeep. He’d taken it around the neighborhood a bunch of times, but this was its first time on the open road. He and his best friends were heading up the Pacific Coast Highway. The PCH. The West Coast’s most notorious and magnificent road. It hugged the Pacific Ocean and twisted and turned up and down the coast for hundreds of miles. It was the perfect road for the night they’d been waiting for all year: the night of the rare blood moon. Mateo reached into the cooler, picked out his favorite root beer, and met Priya and Kristy at the counter.

  “So, what exactly is this blood moon thing, anyway?” Kristy asked Priya.

  “It’s only the rarest phase of the moon,” Priya said as she paid for her snacks. “It’s the fourth total lunar eclipse in a row, when Earth completely blocks the moon from the sun. It happens only once every couple of decades.”

  Mateo added. “And the moon turns red?”

  “That’s the best part,” said Priya. “At the moment of the full eclipse, for just a couple minutes, the moon is bathed in the blood of the interstellar gods and cleansed of all its evil demons. Boo hah hah!” She waved her hands in Kristy’s face for scary effect.

  “Whatever, Priya,” said Kristy. “You know I’m already freaked out. Don’t make it worse.” Mateo and Priya laughed and finished up at the counter.

  Outside, dusk had fallen and a typical Northwest coastal fog was pushing in from the sea. Customers were filling their tanks while traffic sped by along the highway. The air had a slight chill to it, but the heat of the day was hanging on for dear life. Mateo and his friends hoped to time their drive perfectly to be at the Crooked Rock lighthouse when the blood moon happened, just before midnight. Mateo hoped the fog wouldn’t ruin their view.

  “Come on, guys!” Carl shouted from the shotgun seat. “Time’s a wastin’. Let’s hit the open road!”

  “Let’s go!” shouted Kristy. She and Priya screamed and raced to the jeep. Mateo smiled as he ambled along behind them. It was going to be a good night. Definitely a night to remember.

  On his left, an old, tan pickup truck was parked at the edge of the lot. It had caught his eye when they pulled in, and seeing it again, he had the same strange feeling that something about it wasn’t right. The engine was idling, but there was no one behind the wheel, and he saw no exhaust coming from the tailpipe. The truck was old, but it didn’t have a scratch on it. Why would someone go to the trouble of keeping a run-of-the-mill truck like that in such pristine condition? he thought. It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t even close to being a collector’s model.

  “Hey, Captain Stares-a-Lot!” It was Carl. “Are we heading up the PCH tonight or what?”

  Mateo snapped out of his trance. “Sorry!” he shouted. He jogged toward the jeep. His friends were already inside and ready.

  “Let’s go, night riders!” shouted Kristy.

  “Blood moon marauders!” yelled Priya.

  Mateo laughed and walked around to the driver’s side. When he looked back toward the truck, he froze. The pickup was gone. Vanished. Like it had never been there.

  “What is it?” asked Carl. “You look spooked.”

  Mateo shook the cobwebs from his head. Get real. Like an entire truck can be there one second and be gone the next. It must have driven off when I wasn’t looking, he thought. Of course that was the explanation. Trucks don’t just up and disappear, you fraidy-cat. He climbed behind the wheel, started the engine, and pulled the jeep out of the lot.

  CHAPTER 2

  “She purrs like a kitten!” Carl yelled. They were a half hour out of the city and heading north. The fog had begun to lift. The sapphire blue Pacific was on their left, and with the jeep’s soft top pulled off, the cool wind rushed all around them. Music sang from the speakers, Priya and Kristy danced in the back seat as the breeze whipped through their long hair, and Mateo was behind the wheel of his baby, cruising up the PCH, with the first stars just beginning to twinkle in the sky. This coastline has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth, he thought. A group of pelicans floated along the air current, high above the rocks and up the shoreline. No matter what happens after college, I’m never leaving the ocean. The salt air is in my veins. He smiled.

  Carl was right. The jeep was running like a boss. All the time and all the energy he had put into it had paid off. There was barely an inch of that jeep Mateo hadn’t
touched. He had done major work on the engine, he had swapped in new seats, the whole front end was a rebuild, and he had even painted the body from end to end. Baja Yellow. With help from his new buddies at the body shop, Mateo had known all along he could make it look good. He had been more concerned about whether he could make the thing run, but so far the jeep was hummin’ like a beast. Even better than he had imagined.

  “Why do guys always refer to their cars as chicks?” yelled Kristy.

  “Yeah, that’s so sexist,” said Priya.

  “You’re telling me that if you built a kick-butt machine like this from scratch, you wouldn’t give it some dude’s name?” asked Carl.

  Mateo laughed. “I heard that.”

  “I don’t plan on building a kick-butt machine like this now or at any point in the future, if you must know,” said Kristy. “No offense, Mateo.”

  “None taken.” He smiled back at her.

  Mateo had made tons of sacrifices to get the jeep where it was. He had taken on two jobs to pay for the car parts, one at a body shop and another at the thirty-minute oil-change place by his school. And he had quit the cross-country team. That one had stung a little. Mateo loved running. He had been competing for pretty much as long as he could remember. After Mateo started winning races in elementary school, his dad told him he had running in his veins. “It’s the Tarahumara in you,” he would say. “Those are our ancestors. The greatest runners in the world.” Mateo didn’t always like to be reminded of his Mexican heritage. It’s not that he wasn’t proud of it—he just wanted to be more than simply another Latino boy, descended from Mexican immigrant farm workers. It was such a cliché.

  His parents never missed an opportunity to mention the sacrifices they’d made for him. “We’ve worked hard to provide you with a better life,” they always said. “That’s why we came to this country.” Mateo loved his folks, and of course they had done a lot for him, but it would be nice to go just one day without hearing about it. Parents were supposed to work hard. They were supposed to give their children a good life. What did they want? A medal?

  When Mateo left the cross-country team, his dad had cried. He had been Mateo’s personal coach and running partner ever since Mateo was ten, pushing him to be his best. Pushed a little too hard sometimes, thought Mateo. It was like Dad loved watching Mateo win races more than Mateo loved running. When his dad tried to get him to reconsider his decision to quit, Mateo didn’t waver. He had made up his mind. If he wanted a scholarship to Cal Poly, he needed to learn about cars, he needed to make money, and he needed to keep up his 4.0 grade point average. Something had to give.

  “Is that the blood moon?” Kristy was pointing to the full moon, dangling on the horizon just above the Pacific. It was an incredible shade of pale yellow, with many of the larger craters clearly visible.

  “Haven’t you listened to anything I’ve said?” asked Priya. “No. That’s the full moon. The blood moon is going to happen at 11:47.”

  “Could you be more specific?” Mateo asked sarcastically.

  “Hey, I know my blood moons,” said Priya. “What can I say?”

  “What makes it red, anyway?” Carl asked.

  “It’s actually really cool.” Priya sat up. “When Earth gets between the sun and the moon, the moon will start to go black. You’ll start seeing less and less of it. When Earth is completely in front of the sun, the moon turns red. It’s our atmosphere that gives it that color.”

  Mateo turned around for a second. “And that’s when we’re supposed to start howling?”

  Carl added, “And dance naked on the beach?”

  “No, you dorks.” Priya punched Mateo in the shoulder. “But I will tell you something pretty freaky.”

  “Great,” said Kristy. “Here we go.”

  “Back in 2004,” said Priya, “on the night of one of the last blood moons, there was a girl from this area who vanished. A girl from Sleepy Cove. She went out with her friends that night and never came back. None of the friends could explain what happened to her. People suspected they killed her, but no one ever found a body, so the girls were never convicted. Some people think the spirit of the girl is still out there, ready to come back during the next blood moon to enact its revenge.”

  “Shut up, Priya,” said Kristy. “If you keep trying to scare me, I’ll make Mateo turn around.”

  “Who says I’ll listen to you?” said Mateo, smiling. “I’d love to meet the spirit of some old, dead chick. I bet she’s hot.”

  “Stop it, all of you,” said Kristy.

  “Okay,” said Carl. “Phone check. Everyone remember to leave your phone at home?”

  “Mine’s in my bedroom,” said Mateo.

  “Check,” said Priya. “Kitchen.”

  “You really think keeping our phones at home is going to make the night more dramatic?” asked Kristy.

  “I do,” said Carl. “Besides, we agreed. Tonight, no distractions: no talking, no texting, no nothing. Tonight’s all about the blood moon.”

  “A night to remember,” said Mateo.

  Carl and Priya smiled. “A night to remember,” they repeated.

  “Dumb.” Kristy shook her head.

  Mateo’s thoughts quickly got lost in the painted highway lines and the growing darkness. The others sang along to the latest bubblegum pop song on the radio. He was at peace. Everything felt right. He had his ride, he had his friends, and college couldn’t come quickly enough. All of a sudden he felt a lot less like a little kid and a lot more like an adult. He drank in the feeling.

  The fog was all but gone by now, and night was definitely upon them. The glow of the full moon over the Pacific was becoming more and more intense. The ocean was calm, with just a few ripples, the ever-so-slight movement making the moon appear to dance magically on the water. Mateo would suggest they pull over soon so he could get out his jacket, and if the temperature kept dropping, he might even consider putting the top back on the jeep. Nah, he decided. Putting the top on can wait. He wanted to enjoy the thick, salty air for as long as possible.

  The road was blissfully empty—in fact, they seemed to be the only ones on it. Just two cars had passed them going south the entire time, which was saying something, considering they’d been driving for nearly an hour. This stretch of the PCH was somewhat isolated—nothing like the summer traffic jam that built up between San Francisco and L.A. thanks to the million tourists that arrived every year. But seeing only a few cars on a beautiful Saturday night like this was still strange. Eerie, really.

  Mateo wasn’t driving particularly fast. This was a joyride, after all; nothing demanded they make good time. He looked in his mirrors. He was ready to slow down even more to let a speedster pass if one approached from behind—Mateo was all about proper driving etiquette. Slow cars should allow faster cars to pass. But nothing showed up. No speedsters. No vehicles of any kind.

  Finally, after a few seconds of staring at the road, he spotted something in his right side mirror. What was it? It couldn’t be a car. There were no headlights. He dismissed it and turned his eyes back to the highway.

  After a few seconds, he couldn’t help looking again, this time in his rearview mirror. And again he saw it. There was something back there. Following them.

  Carl saw him looking. “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” said Mateo. “It’s just . . . I can’t tell. Is there something behind us?”

  Everyone but Mateo turned around.

  “It’s a truck,” said Kristy.

  “With its lights off?” asked Mateo.

  “Yeah,” said Priya.

  Mateo checked his mirrors again. “What the heck?”

  “It’s getting closer,” said Carl.

  “Maybe it’s the spirit of a dead truck driver,” said Priya. “Someone else who died back in 2004.”

  “Shut up, Priya,” said Kristy.

  “It’s getting closer,” said Carl.

  Even in the darkness, the truck was clearly visible now. It was just a co
uple car lengths behind them, and it was creeping closer by the second.

  “What does he want?” asked Kristy.

  “Who knows?” said Mateo. “He’s probably drunk. I’ll slow down.” Mateo took his foot off the gas and waved the driver past.

  The pickup truck moved even closer and hung on their bumper as they curved left and then right along the mountain road. “He’s a lunatic,” said Kristy.

  Mateo let the car drift down to forty miles per hour, then thirty-five. Still nothing. The driver didn’t budge.

  Suddenly, a roar blasted into the night as the truck swerved into the oncoming lane and screamed past them, just inches away from the jeep’s side mirror. It was then that Mateo noticed what he should’ve noticed right away: it was the same old, tan pickup he’d seen at the gas station.

  CHAPTER 3

  “Where’d it go?” asked Carl.

  The truck had disappeared around a bend in the road. When Mateo cruised around the same curve, the truck was gone, like it had never been there. Just like back at the gas station.

  “Freaky,” said Priya.

  “Freaky?” said Kristy. “Try moronic and irresponsible. Who drives like that?”

  “Did anyone see the driver?” asked Mateo.

  “Um,” said Carl. “I didn’t see one.”

  “Me either,” said Priya.

  “Good one, guys,” said Kristy. “The truck that just sped past us didn’t have a driver. Your feeble attempts to scare me are becoming more and more pathetic.”

  “I didn’t see a driver either,” said Mateo.

  “Mateo, not you too,” said Kristy. “You guys are so dumb.”

  “It must have been the fog,” said Carl. “That’s why we couldn’t see him.”

  “Um, but there is no fog,” said Mateo. “Not anymore.”

  “It could be one of those driverless cars,” said Priya, smiling. Mateo and Carl laughed.

  “Just stop it.” Kristy shoved Priya. “All of you.”