Lunacy
Nobody is precisely sure when it happened, but one night last month a second moon appeared.
It looks similar to our old moon, but the craters and lava beds that make up its surface prove it is a completely different moon and not just some reflection we don't understand.
The reason no one knows exactly when it appeared is also one of the strangest...it doesn't show up on camera. Neither video or image, nor any other means of measurement. There is no change to the tides to indicate a new source of gravity. Animals seem to pay it no mind either.
But it's there according to everyone with functional eyes.
The astonishment of this alone was already nearly more than people could digest when reports started to trickle in that to some people the new moon did not appear lifeless. To them, in fact, it appeared to be a lush and vibrant ecosystem of blue oceans and green continents.
As the weeks moved on, those who saw the image of a new eden became obsessed with being in its light. Thousands of people roamed the countrysides far from city lights at night to bathe in its lumination. Without regard to their own safety, people followed the moon as it moved west in their nightly sky. Shedding their clothing as they wandered, they died by the thousands to exposure. By the end of the second week people were literally walking into the ocean (and their doom) just to get another few minutes of its light before it set.
Then it was reported with horror that the numbers who saw the new moon as paradise and falling under its thrall was growing...
Some with means even made futile attempts to reach it. A group hijacked a rocket meant to resupply the International Space Station with plans to fly to it, only to meet with disastrous explosive failure before reaching orbit. A member of the Saudi royal family even attempted to quickly have their own rocket assembled but met with a similar fate.
Society broke down long before any feasible mission could be launched.
Those of us that still see it as a lifeless siren have become scarce and cut off. My generator is the only reason I have the power to write this entry...the grid has been dead for weeks. I don't even hear the moans of the faithful as they bask anymore.
I am alone.
But as I write this I just noticed that the night sky outside appears to have some color to it. Perhaps I'll go for a walk and have a look. After all the moons have always been so beautiful at night, have they not?