The Full Moon Mystery

That night, like it happened every month, the full moon lit up the whole neighbourhood. For the Blackmill family, that meant sleeping in the backyard right under the stars with nothing but a few blankets. The strange tradition had been present in the household generation after generation and, even though its origins remained unknown, no one dared to break it. 

During dinner, the five members of the family discussed the issue like they used to do. 

“He was drunk”, seventeen-year-old Kattia pointed out. “I won’t get tired of saying it. Our great-great-great grandfather, or whatever it was, was either drunk or high”.

“How dare you doubt your ancestors?” challenged her father with a frown. 

“I doubt everything and everyone. I’m sick of sleeping on the grass, it’s stupid.” complained the eldest daughter as she grabbed her phone.

“Booh, you’re so boring. For me, it was the werewolves” said 10-year-old James excitedly. 

Like the tradition itself, the Blackmills had inherited different theories that justified its origin. Even though the suppositions had not been invented by them, each family member stood by a different one and, according to James, the family came from a lineage of werewolves. However, when the nomadic lifestyle was no longer sustained, their ancestors couldn’t continue to transform into wolves. After all, if they lived in a village, transforming meant scaring - and probably even murdering - their neighbours. 

The young boy was the most passionate one when it came to theories. Every month, he designed a power-point presentation with his “evidence pieces” and showed it to his family with the intention to convince them. One of his arguments was that their “hairy” genetics were due to the werewolf nature. He also adjudicated Kattia and Mr. Blackmill’s anger explosions to the same reason.

“Sure, and I’m a fairy” mocked Kattia. “If you don’t want to believe he was drunk, fine. Maybe he just pranked his children, and his children pranked theirs, and here we are. Sleeping like dogs”.

“Keep on making fun of your brother and you’ll end up sleeping on the street” threatened Mr. Blackmill. 

“C’mon, stop it. Can’t we just have dinner like a normal family?” pleaded Mrs. Blackmill. 

“Normal? So you literally make me sleep on the grass and you want this family to be normal?” snorted out Kattia. 

“I like the werewolves’ theory, James. But mine seems to make more sense” commented 13-year-old Marie calmly, ignoring the chaos around her.

Mary’s defended supposition was that the family’s blood carried a terrible skill illness. According to her, their great-great-great grandfather had visited every doctor that existed, but none of them would give him a solution to his problem. In Marie’s words, it was a “genetic skin disease that could not be avoided and that made your skin fall off”. Apparently, their ancestors have discovered, after consulting a few alternative healers, that the only antidote to this misfortune was the light of the full moon. Every month, they had to sleep under its light in order to keep their skin healthy and prevent it from decomposing. 

For his part, Mr. Blackmill defended the hypothesis of “character build-up”. According to this theory, one of their ancestors had been “cursed” with rebellious children who, instead of working in the farm as they were supposed to do, deceived their parents. Each day, they robbed some of their father’s money, escaped the household and spent the money on alcoholic drinks. According to the story, there came a time when the children’s parents grew tired from their behaviour and closed the house’s doors for good. From that moment on, the offspring had to sleep outdoors to “redeem from their sins”. The generations that came afterwards adopted the full-moon tradition in order to build character in every Blackmill member and avoid all kinds of rebellious tendencies. 

Mrs. Blackmill, instead, believed in the curse hypothesis. In the report of the story, a mean witch had cursed one of their ancestors due to jealousy. In theory, the witch had been in love with their ancestor from a very young age and, when he got married to another woman, her broken heart casted a spell on both of them. As a consequence, the couple had to sleep under the full moon’s light in order to escape the effects of the bewitchment. Thanks to the full moon, their great-great-great grandparents could have children of their own despite the witch’s wishes. 

“Thou and thy bairn and thy bairn’s bairn shall be bewitched for eternity”, recited Mrs. Blackmill. 

“I mean, it makes a little bit of sense”, agreed Kattia. “How do we know, though, that the witch was mean? We can’t be sure of that”. 

Another hypothesis within the same theory was that an ancestor of theirs had asked a witch for a favor which could have been economic prosperity, love or any other kind of benefit. Under the terms of the covenant, the man had to pay the witch in a certain way and, when he did not keep his part of the deal, the woman bewitched him and his whole family. One supposition was that their great-great-great grandfather’s farm business was going bankrupt and that he searched for magical help out of desperation. Still, when the enchantress’ help actually worked, the Blackmill’s ancestor was arrogant. From one moment to the other, he did not believe in magic anymore and attributed the farm’s success to his own work. From that moment on, the full moon custom was followed in order to escape the effects of the curse and pay, in a way, what their great-great-great grandfather had not paid. 

That night was one of the coldest December nights. Nevertheless, the Blackmills never missed a chance to light a fire, eat marshmallows and tell each other horror stories as they spent the night outside. Whatever the reason was for their strange tradition, none of them - not even Kattia - was courageous enough to break the custom. And, since they seemed to have no other choice, they took advantage of the situation to make the experience as entertaining as possible.