Object seemingly moves in two directions at once while brightening and dimming.

My wife and kids were out with the telescope in the front yard looking at the large clear moon. We were looking to the south. Above us and slightly to the west, a bright light shone (like a sudden star glowing bright- catching my attention) and it dimmed a bit and started moving towards the south. It moved south in a straight line for about a second before completely going out. It glowed again, this time further down the "line" it was traveling on but in the opposite direction (more north, away from where the light was going) and it happened again, the light got bright, dimmed a bit and moved to the south for a second and disappeared. Again it brightened but this time it was a little bit more north AWAY FROM WHERE THE LIGHT WAS HEADING and floated south again. This happened maybe 6 times then it vanished for good.
My son was scared shitless.
 TL;DR - I saw a something in the sky get very bright for a moment, dim a bit as it moved south and disappeared momentarily before reappearing moments later further north; brightening again and slowly moving south before disappearing again only to reappear even MORE north and repeating this pattern about 6 times.