The Mothman Cometh

## The Mothman Cometh by Wafflepal

Michael was a twelve-year-old boy who lived in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. He lived with a small family of three, since his father passed away when he was seven. In his middle school, he was in the cryptozoology group. In fact, he was the leader of said group. He and his five friends, Ashley, Ben, Zach, Kayli, and Joshua would meet in the science classroom and discuss different cryptids and urban legends.

Every week, they would choose another cryptid to discuss, and another member to research it. They quickly flew through the list of cryptids easily, from the Ahool, to the Zanzibar Leopard. Eventually, in December, they were at a loss of cryptids to research, until one member learned of another local legend: The Mothman. He told everything that he knew about him, and, one by one, this cryptid grew on them. They argued over who should study it, when Michael, being the leader, announced that everybody would do this, as the cryptozoology's final cryptid.

He read everything he could about Mothman, and, through reading the witness reports, found a possible hideout for it. Using all of the group's funds, they convinced the principal to give them a field trip to the West Virginia Ordnance works, an abandoned World War II TNT factory. The bus driver drove seven miles away from Point Pleasant and told them to come back if anything went wrong, and to stay together.

The six kids jumped off the bus, and slowly walked towards the first building of the Ordnance Works. Along the way, each kid muttered to each other about how the air smelled like smoke, and how freezing it was. Michael was the most excited. This was going to be amazing! He daydreamed about walking into the enigmatic looking building and being startled by Mothman sitting up on a perch, then discovering Mothman was friendly, and riding him far away on the breeze. He smiled at the thought but was interrupted when he saw he was at the door.

He nearly squealed with excitement as he opened the door and held it for his friends to come through. They crept through the doorway, with their shoes making a dragging sound against the dirty vinyl floor and came to a stop once they were all inside. Michael let go of the door and walked forward in silence. Everybody jumped when the door made a loud echoing slam that seemed to echo for hours.

The building was dirty inside, with brick walls, broken machines here and there, and one shattered window, which was the only source of light in the dimly lit building. They stood there in silence for a second, before Michael broke the silence by taking a step forward. He looked back at his friends, and they followed his lead and came forward. They walked through the large main room, dragging their feet as they walked. Ashley glanced out the window and saw what looked like a raven or crow caw, then fly away. She sighed, letting a cloud of warm air come out of her mouth, and looked ahead.

Michael opened a door for them to go through, atop a set of rusty stairs, though Joshua insisted that they go through another door, just underneath the stairs. Ashley insisted yet another door. Zach, fed up with the bickering, suggested that they split up into groups. Zach went with Joshua, Ashley went with Ben, and Michael went with Kayli. They agreed to meet at the bus if anything went wrong.

Michael grabbed the flashlight out of his backpack and turned it on. He nervously smiled at Kayli and continued on through the door. He opened it, and closed it as he entered, which, again, made an echoing slam. They crept down the hallway, which was pitch black aside from the flashlight. They felt uneasy, as they couldn't see anything four feet away from them. “So, how're you holding up, Kayli?” he asked, to lighten the mood a bit.

“Fine, but something's off.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean--”

She was cut off by the sound of the door slamming. They quickly spun around, and heard slow, scraping steps coming closer. They stared in horror and silence, as the steps became louder and louder. Two dim, red lights appeared down the hall. Kayli wanted to ask what they were, but her throat seemed to swell shut. The lights grew brighter, and bigger as the footsteps became louder. Michael felt a chill run down his spine, and he stepped backwards, nervously. There was one last step, then they stopped. The two huge red lights seemed to glow.

Michael's arm twitched as he slowly raised the flashlight to the lights. It shone to reveal a humanoid creature, with glossy feathers. Its feet were scaly and green with long black talons that seemed to dig into the ground. Its shoulders were about one foot taller than its head, and were tipped with long, black wings. And its head... it seemed to be pushed down into its chest, and it had two huge red eyes, as big as dinner plates with no pupils, and no light, yet they still seemed to glow. Its mouth appeared to be either missing or covered by feathers.

The two children stared at the creature, too scared to move. The creature stood there, motionless and expressionless. Michael attempted to whisper "run" to Kayli, but all that came out was a loud squeak. Upon hearing this, the creature's eyes seemed to become even brighter, and it let out a horrible, otherworldly screeching noise, which reminded Michael of a mix of a scream from a horror movie, and an ambulance's siren. It unfolded its wings and charged at them. Michael screamed at Kayli to run, grabbed her hand and tried to run. But Kayli wouldn't budge. Her face was stuck in an expression of sheer terror, and she was staring the creature in the eyes.

Michael tugged and tugged on her arm, but she wouldn't budge. The creature was practically on top of them, so Michael sighed, and let go. He ran down the hall, gasping for breath. He heard a short scream, lasting for only a second... then heard nothing. The creature's eyes shone through the darkness and turned towards him. He screamed and sprinted down the hall.

Thoughts raced through his head about what might happen if he was caught, and how he would escape. He looked around desperately for an exit or hiding place, but to no avail. He glanced behind him, and saw it gaining on him, and fast. He felt his stomach turn and sweat roll down his face. He turned forward again and tried running faster.

As he ran, he saw a door on the side of the hallway. Michael gasped and ran ahead. He stopped quickly at it. Locked. He looked to his left and saw the eyes getting closer and closer. He screamed again, and frantically turned the knob back and forth. Click! The door opened. He ran inside and left the door slightly ajar. He backed away behind a table in the room and prayed it wouldn't find him. He heard the scraping footsteps again, then heard them slow. He held his hand over his mouth, so it couldn't hear him.

He was so terrified that tears rolled down his face. Through the blur of his tears, he saw there was a hand mirror in the room, so he held it up to see behind him so that he didn’t have to move. There it was. He yelped, and turned around, to see its red eyes gazing down on him. He screamed, “NO!!!” as the silent creature leapt over the table, at him.

Afterwards, when it was time to leave, Zach, Ben, Josh and Ashley met outside in the snow, and asked each other if they'd seen Michael or Kayli. Nobody had, so they sighed, puffed out clouds of warm air, and kicked their feet off of the ground. They were interrupted by a sudden ominous screech. They stopped sighing and turned to look at the building. The creature flew out of the shattered window. As it flew, it twitched and writhed, and fell and rose. It flew as though it were broken. It flew directly over the kids and flew over the kids' heads. Something fell off of it as it flew by and landed on Ashley's hand. It was a drop of blood. It flew up into the sky, and it hasn't been seen since... “Mothman...” Ben mumbled, “cometh.”

Where is it now? Please, dear reader... don't think about it too much.