The Darkness 2: Mothman

A huge bridge in our small town collapsed randomly in the middle of the night. Everyone said it was because it was old and it was it's time to break down. This was believable but a man at the 7/11 next to the bridge said that something caused it to fall. He said that when he heard a loud screech he left the store to investigate. There was a loud crack and as the bridge crumbled down he saw what looked like a large bird-like figure with red eyes flying away from the wreckage. The police and newspaper dismissed the sighting as a barn owl that had flown away as the bridge fell but me and my kind knew better.

I met with Audio and Cee at the park in my apartments. "Where is everyone else?" I asked. "Uh, I guess everyone got sick or something so they can't come." Audio answered. This was a problem; there shouldn't have been something that had affected more than half of us. It shouldn't have been possible but there was a more immediate pressing issue. "So what did you find out?" I asked them. Cee reached into his backpack and pulled out a small notebook. "I don't think you're going to like this, it's pretty extreme." he said as he opened the book to the near middle. "It's the Mothman." Audio said. I was taken aback by what he told me "The Mothman? What the fuck? Shouldn't that nigga but on the other side of the country?" I asked. "Well I guess he found his way over here and that's how the bridge fell. The motherfucker knocked it down." Cee snarled. That pissed me off. I couldn't understand what would've brought the Mothman to California but regardless to that, he wasn't welcome in our town. He had already destroyed the bridge in the center of town there was no telling what other kind of damage he would cause. "And we can't communicate with him. He has no way of communication." Audio added "so there's no just telling him to leave." That was going to be a problem and that went without saying. "Well what do we do then?" I asked "What about our rivals? Do they know anything? We can't let him just fly around the town destroying it." "We can't fight him with just three of us either but like you said, he’s gunna destroy the town if we don't do shit, Manish." Cee snapped. I looked at Audio for answers but he probably was just as uncertain as I was. We sat brooding in the moment. The tension was thick around us; the urgency was well known between all of us. We had a lot at stake and the problem had to be handled immediately. "Well, we have to try." Audio said "Otherwise nothing will get done." He was right and we knew it. The odds were against us but that didn't matter, we fought for what mattered to us. "Alright. What else did you find out about him?" I asked Audio. Audio opened the book and he began briefing us.

January 14th: Dusk of The Same Day

Me, Audio, and Cee stood at the edge of the woods. The plan was to split up and find him before it was completely dark and he left the woods to wreak havoc on our town. I looked around to see if anyone was around us under the orange-purple, darkening sky. "You guys remember what we're going to do right?" I asked. "Yeah." Cee said. Audio nodded in agreement. There was a kind of eerie feeling knowing that we were running into the woods having almost no clue what we’re facing.

The Mothman. A creature first seen at Point Pleasant, West Virginia when the Silver Bridge collapsed in November of 1966. 46 people were killed in the bridges fall. Some of the survivors reported seeing a huge 9 foot all bird-man like figure with huge glowing red eyes on the bridge before its collapse. Since then dozens of people reported seeing The Mothman in the woods and before many disasters on the East Coast. No one had seen it up close or knew exactly what it was but all expected that he flew and caused disasters. It had never been seen on the West Coast until now.

"Let's do this." Audio said. We took our first few steps into the woods then began running. We ran faster and faster becoming further from the town. When we were far enough we changed. Feral power rushed over me as my claws, fangs, muzzle, and tail grew. Fur sprouted, knees reversed directions, bones shifted inside my body, and I fell forward onto my paws. Within a matter of seconds we changed into our wolf forms. Next to me stood Audio; he was a way taller but thin, brown wolf; the tallest of our pack. Cee was a lighter brown wolf with long thin fur easily characterized by the blonde patch on his head and was only a few inches shorter than Audio. We were the only 3 of our pack of 7 in the woods that night. The musky scent of the Mothman reeked over all of the woods. The presence was so powerful that even the animals of the woods stayed hidden in their homes. The presence of disaster was heavy. I looked to the sky, the moon was almost up. I sent Cee to the North, Audio to the East, and I went to the West. I ran through the woods searching for the Mothman. There were no tracks or scent trails just the stench of his dry smell polluting the woods. As I searched all I could think of was him escaping our search and going back to town and destroying it. Our town that we worked so hard to protect was now endangered by a single creature that had no reason other than to destroy. This fueled my urgency. I ran through the woods. Tree after tree, bush after bush; there was no sign of him and he scent wasn't getting any stronger. There was no way he had made it back to town without us detecting him. The sky turned from navy to ebony and the moon, stars illuminated the sky and a cold breeze swept in from the sea. We were running out of time. My search continued through the dark woods with no success. Eventually I lifted my head to the sky to let out a howl asking if they found anything but I sensed something sinister behind me. I turned and looked around. A feeling of pain, despair, and evil blew through me. My fur stood on end from the familiar feeling. My eyes and ears surveyed the area. Something was near. My nose was filled with the warm smell of fresh blood. It made no sense to me, I circled around a few time trying to get the trail of the blood but it was everywhere. The same sinister feeling as before rushed me again. It was coming from a large thin tree a few yards away. I growled and bared my teeth as I neared the tree, ready to attack whatever it was. Suddenly I heard Cee's alerting howl and he wasn't far from me. Feral instinct and rage turned me to run in his direction. Rushing through the woods in the darkness I heard Cee howled again. It was a warning howl; this meant he had found our target. Faster and faster I ran until I finally reached my destination. Approaching Cee's side snarling and growl, my eyes never left The Mothman. The bizarre creature was huge and menacing. Standing 9 feet tall, the humanoid moth beast's flashy red eyes were set in it's shoulders where it's head was supposed to be. It's grey furry body had no arms but huge wings that opposed the yellow color of it's bushy antenna. Its small mandibles began chattering before it let out ear piercing clicking screech. The Mothman was disturbing to look at but my eyes never left it. There was an overwhelming sense of negativity and disaster emitted around it. The feeling was as if we knew something was going to go wrong. It began flapping its wings frantically and screeching at us taking a few steps forward. The few steps it took pushed us back; I let out a warning snarl. We were both hesitant to make the first move. It seemed unphased so I snarled again; he screeched back and it's eyes flashed. The tension between us was clear and it had no intentions on leaving. A tree suddenly fell and knocked me and Cee away from each other. The Mothman took advantage. It flapped it's wings, took flight grabbing Cee and lifted him into the air. Cee struggled to get free. Before the creature had the chance to do anything else, Audio jumped out of nowhere and rammed into them. I wasn't going to let it get away, thrusting myself off a tree trunk for leverage, I leaped into the air and bit onto The Mothman's leg. It began whipping and thrashing violently trying to shake me off by my jaw was locked on. Slowly but surely we began to descend to the ground but the closer we got he thrashing more furiously. Rage and determination kept me clenched on. We almost hit the ground but he used his other clawed foot and kicked me off. As soon as I hit the ground The Mothman took the sky just out of our reach and let out an air splitting screech. The noise rattled us to the core; the whole woods seemed to be ached by the sound. It flapped it's wings letting off a grey powder before jetting off over the tree tops toward town. The powder disoriented us, he began coughing and wheezing. It wasn't long before it wore off. Audio, like a true predator after its prey, instantly pursued The Mothman. Me and Cee weren't going to be able to keep up with them. We shifted into our Werewolf forms, took to the trees and followed them. From tree to tree, we followed the silhouette of the creature in the moonlight. I became more nervous as he got closer to our town. It wasn't long before we saw a tall, thin, werewolf Audio launch out of the tree tops and latch onto the Mothman and they both fell to the earth.

We finally caught up to them. Audio was engaged in a viscous fight with the Mothman. He would grab one of the wings and get slashed with a foot claw. The monster was flapping and beating Audio with it's wings violently. They wrestled endlessly. There was blood, fur, and powder everywhere. Even though The Mothman was taller than Audio, he was intent to defeat it. Every time the monster tried to take flight Audio would rip it down. Audio took many nasty bug bites from the Mothman's nasty mandibles; it managed to bite through his fur and reach skin. Every time Audio tried to bite back, the powder would be released, preventing the bite from contacting. Mothman had it's work cut out for it nonetheless. The tall werewolf was more than a match for it. They faced off. Audio growled and The Mothman's eyes flashed. It began screeching and clicking wildly. The noise shook the whole woods and the feeling of disaster became stronger the louder the The Mothman screamed. The feeling climbed and climbed until it exploded. The trees around us began collapsing almost crushing us. We ducked and dodged the falling trunks while still trying to approach The Mothman. It was like the trees were aiming to fall on us. Cee finally got close enough and grabbed the creature's foot but was slapped away it's monstrous wing. I got behind it and wrapped my arms around it. It threw a fit, kicking and flapping. Audio ran in but it broke free of my grip and knocked him away. Audio became enraged and began to claw at The Mothman. It managed to dodge his grasp and get into the sky. Audio instantly leaped into the air and yanked it down and slammed it on it's back. It began struggling and flailing, kicking at him every time he got close. The noxious powder filled the air almost suffocating us but we fought through it. Finally, the enraged Audio snarled and slammed through The Mothman's attempt to defend himself and pinned it down. Cee ran over and clawed it's mandible shut; preventing it from screeching and causing anymore disasters. There was no way he was letting it go. It had been subdued. Audio stared down at The Mothman and bared his teeth. The huge bug-like monstrosity eyes flashed violently at Audio's glare eventually faded. So did the intense feeling of disaster that had plagued the woods. I ran over and stood with Cee and Audio. Together, we all howled at the moon for Audio's victory.