Sometimes It is Darkest before Dawn (Iorichan)

—Prelude—
It was a relatively calm and peaceful Friday night, on the shores of the Boiling Isles. The week prior, the Banshees had won the Grudgby title on a photo finish ending. With the near simultaneous capture of the rusty smidge, they edged out Gladus High, and received the coveted Boiling Kettle trophy. It was their time to privately celebrate their win as they went to the Broken Spine amusement park just on the outskirts of Bonesborough. There was a blood moon out, and the moon was deep crimson. Ominous as much as it were a metaphor of what was about to occur.

The Banshees were too busy fooling around to notice that they were being watched by some shady figure. Their yellow soul piercing eyes stared through them judging their karma and their worth. As they shoved people around and talked down to them, it was obviously clear that these ladies were not the heroes and saviors that the town made them out to be. A lesson in humility was in order.

—The early in the morning at the Owl house—

Luz had woken up from having the most horrible of dreams waking up in a cold sweat gasping for breath. She looked out her window to observe the gigantic full moon and a terrifying deep howl echoing through the forest. She figured it was a werewolf, and she would have gotten excited over this, but after her dream she felt a sense of dread. She heard footsteps downstairs, which her curiosity was perked. She slowly tip toed down the stairs and looked around the corner to see who it was.

Sitting on the couch was Eda with a cup of Apple blood in one hand and consoling hooty with the other. Hooty had outstretched himself onto Eda's lap trembling. Eda looked up after hearing a floorboard creak, which she feigned a smile; although, she looked incredibly exhausted. "Hey Kiddo, you couldn't sleep either?"

Luz looked off to the side while rubbing her arm uncomfortably. She nodded slowly before she muttered, "I had a bad dream. I had a dream about some gigantic wolf chasing me and it bit my shoulder it felt so real..." she mentioned before Hooty screamed out in terror.

"Is he here!? Is he here!?"

"No, Hooty, he's not here" Eda assured him.

Luz rubbed out the sleepies out of her eyes and groaned. "Who? Who's not here?"

Eda lifted her scroll off the coffee table and showing her a live stream of a headline. A news ticker crawled on the bottom said, "Breaking News: Bloodmoon Killer Strikes Again! Hexside grudgby team left for dead! 4 critically injured. Healing Coven struggle to remove curse!" The scroll was running b-roll footage of the crime scene. The Scouts of the Emperor's Coven were documenting and processing the evidence.

Luz's eyes grew wide taking the scroll from her having mixed emotions about this incident. "I-I felt like I've..."

"Been there before?" Eda interjected

"Yea...but, how did you know? Is there like some crazy link between the Killer and I" Luz asked.

"You're not that far off kid. Actually, it's the Bloodmoon Killer's MO. When he goes into a bloodlust, his aura brings night terrors to everyone who sleeps. Those of us who have encountered him already, he forces us to relive our attack over and over again. Hooty has been attacked twice" Eda informed her.

"Morning Crew!" King shouted abruptly.

"He's here! He's here!" Hooty panicked.

"Man, what's gotten into you?" King muttered as he stretched his arms out. He entered the kitchen and climbed up onto the counters to pillage the cabinet for his favorite cereal.

"King! Don't you know there's a killer on the loose?" Luz shouted.

"What the Bloodmoon killer? Psh, what an amateur! It's not like he's actually killed someone! It's all sensationalized!" King argued.

"No! He's killed! And he'll kill again! And Eda doesn't have her powers! Without them, we're sitting ducks!" Hooty shouted at King trying to explain the gravity of their situation.

King poured himself a bowl, which it overflowed when he looked up at them rolling his eyes. "Come on, Harpy, Glyphs, and Blast Mouth! We aren't powerless" He mentioned pointing to Eda, Luz, then to himself.

"Should I stay inside? I mean, Amity and I were supposed to go out on a date today" Luz asked.

"Eh, don't sweat it...the Bloodmoon Killer wouldn't be stupid enough to go out and about in the middle of town, swarming with guards, and in the middle of daylight" Eda said.

"But you do that Eda" Luz added.

There was a knock on the door, and Hooty screamed detaching himself from the door and hiding into the porta-hooty. Eda got up to answer the door, and of course it was Amity. Eda's expression was greatly annoyed with the added effect of black circles under her eyes. "Hey Boots...Come right in. I'm sure you two have plenty to discuss about what happened last night" she said as she tried to not nod off.