"There will be a full moon tonight." Kate stated it like a fact, but I knew she was only guessing. The moon here changed in crazy ways. Yesterday was the half moon. The day before that, there was no moon at all. The moon made its choice on how it wanted to be seen each night. One time, it was full for five years. Those years were called the Silver Years.

"It's been changing by the halves for a month now," Kate continued. "The pattern might go on for a while more, or this could be the last night."

"It's almost sunset," I replied. "Do you want to go for a walk on the beach?"

The sunsets of the night before the full moon were always spectacular. Golden light flooded throughout the land, and then came the shades of pink and purple. It was a silent symphony of color.

The waves were bigger than usual. Their normal gray color was now a deep shade of emerald greens and dark blues. It made them look mesmerizing.

The sea air was also different from usual. Instead of having its friendly feeling, it was sharp and icy cold. Most of the times it was just cool, and nothing more than that.

Kate seemed to sense the difference, too. She held her head higher, as if she was trying to get a whiff of the air at a certain angle. It didn't seem to work, so she started talking to me.

"You sense it also, don't you," she said. It was not much of a question. It was more of a confirmation. "Something's going to happen tonight," she said. "Something... Bad."

"Oh, that makes me feel SO much better," I said sarcastically. My voice softened. "It'll be fine, I promise." But I was mostly trying to reassure myself.

Kate said, "You know-" But then she broke off. She was staring, open-mouthed, in the sea's direction. "Oh God," she whispered.

I followed her gaze to the ocean and saw what she was staring at. One of the waves had become a hand, and it was reaching toward me.

"Run," I said, but we were both already going.

Time seemed to slow down, though, and the hand-wave caught up to me. It pulled me into the ocean, as I screamed and kicked at the sand and wondered why Kate was not doing anything. She seemed to be frozen in fear.

The hand pulled me under its green blanket. The last thing I saw was the sun set, and that's when I knew it was over. The golden light, which I had come to see for pleasure, was not very pleasurable at all. Bubbles popped out of my mouth. My lungs screamed, desperate for air, but it only got saltwater. Soon, the lights went out. The lat thing I thought was, 'I'll never know if Kate was right about there being a full moon tonight.' It was that thought which killed me.