Under a Ghostly Moon (Jerry Moon Supernatural Thrillers Book 1) by William Moore, Beverley Moore Read Free Book Online Page B

Goth, this lady, and she was, frankly, much more impressive than most of the Goths he had met so far.
    " I'm the manager, yes," replied Kate, handing him his drink.
    " Have you time to chat a while? You see, I'm writing this article on Goth culture for Venue and I came here this evening hoping to interview one of the bar staff, seeing as this is the main Goth venue in the city."
    Kate pondered for a second .  "I suppose I could give you a few minutes.  It's hardly busy in here, is it? Moz, I'm taking five – keep an eye on this end of the bar would you?" She pulled herself a pint of lager then indicated a side table, where they installed themselves with their drinks.  "What's your name?" she asked, pulling a tobacco tin out of her pocket emblazoned with a silver pentagram on a black background.  Moon noticed the same device occurred elsewhere about her person in the form of rings and a pendant.
    " Jerry Moon," he replied.  "Most people just call me Moon."
    "' Moon' I like," Kate replied, rolling a thin liquorice- papered cigarette.  "The moon's always been associated with the Goddess, you know.  Good omen." She smiled mysteriously.
    This puzzled Moon slightly but he pressed on with his interview.  "So how long have you been a Goth?" he began.
    A wolfish smile spread across Kate 's face.  "I'm not a Goth - if anything I'm a biker, but I suppose it's an easy mistake to make. We have a similar fondness for black leather and tattoos.  It's just that bikers have balls." The grin she flashed him would definitiely have looked at home on something large and furry.
    Moon cleared his throat .  "Sorry, I just assumed, with the pub's clientele..."
    " The Rest was a biker pub long before the Goths moved in, Moon.  We didn't choose them but they chose us because we didn't turn our noses up at them.  The Hangman's Rest has always had a soft spot for society's rebels and misfits."
    Yeah, and some of them hang on way past kicking out time , thought Moon, as he watched the shade of a regency highwayman float past behind Kate's head.  "So, you didn't decide to target Goths, they just started coming along?"
    " Yeah, kids looking for somewhere to drink where they could Goth up in peace."
    "' Goth up'?" Moon wasn't sure what she meant.
    " Oh you know.  They need somewhere to wear the gear and pose a bit without some moron ragging them off or using them as a punch bag.  Goth is an escapist sub-culture.  They use a spoonful of fantasy to take the bitter edge off reality.  That's easier to do somewhere where the nastier parts of reality are out of the picture."
    " So that's why they dress up? To escape from reality?" This was what he needed for his article, an objective, but informed, opinion.
    " That and to create a sense of identity.  A lot of them have had a hard ride from mainstream society somewhere down the line - bullying at school, boring day jobs, oppressive parents... It's a way to break away from the world you despise safe in the company of people who feel the same way.  The gear is both a sort of uniform and a way of giving the rest of the world the finger.  All subcultures work that way, from the skinheads to the fundamentalists."
    " But why choose Gothic?" Moon asked the most obvious question.  "Why dress up as vampires or corpses? Why toy with fantasies about being damned? What's the point?"
    Kate laughed then drew hard on her cigarette .  Blowing smoke out of her nostrils, she replied, "Ask me an easy one, why don't you? The answer to that must lie as far back as the first ghost story told around the first cooking fire and then down through the ages from countless folk-tales to Stoker and Shelly and the early Gothic writers.  It's all about power and fear, I would say.  Death is powerful and frightening, so if you toy with death then you take on some of its power.  The dark is the primal fear so if you embrace the darkness you become fearsome.  And vampires? Well, they're just cool, aren't they? Modern