The Mothman Cometh

"Woo!" Rebecca exclaimed to Angie as they walked out of the conference room of the Herald Dispatch.

"Girl, I can't believe you are excited about getting that shitty assignment," Angie sat her legal pad with her notes down on her desk in the cubical she shared with Rebecca.

"Any story can be a big break," Rebecca's tone had become sarcastic as she shook her head mockingly looking at Angie.

"You are right, just not Mothman," Angie burst out with laughter.

"I mean my dad is a businessman, and my mother is a lawyer. You don't think they will be proud of their daughter who graduated from Marshall with a Journalism degree doing a story about the Mothman festival?" Rebecca stuck out her tongue to finish her question.

"I tell you what, i'll by your lunch if you get more comments on your story than I do on my assignment," Angie knew Becca couldn't resist a challenge.

Becca knew that Angie's assignment was cake. She was reporting on the upcoming Gubernatorial election, and would obviously get a ton of interest. "You got a bet bitch," Becca shook on it to seal the deal.

A few short weeks later, Becca was arriving for her weekend stay in Pt. Pleasant, a small modest town in north western West Virginia. She pulled into her hotel on Main Street, the Lowe Hotel. This hotel was the place the locals told her to stay at to get the best experience of the festival. The hotel was a nice looking building on the outside. The inside was amazing!

There was a beautiful dining room, which housed breakfast at the moment. And Angie thought I had the shit assignment. Smiling at her thoughts, she approached the front desk to check in.

"Welcome to the Lowe Hotel, and welcome to the home of the Mothman festival. How may I assist you today ma'am?" This woman is really proud of her small town American job.

"Yes, I should have a room booked through the Herald Dispatch for Rebecca Martin," Becca slid her ID across the counter to verify her identity.

The older woman put on her glasses and looked over to Becca, and then back to the ID. "What a pretty young woman," she said as she handed the ID back.

Hoping that she wasn't going to try to interest Becca in any younger grandsons, as happens in most towns she is sent to, "thank you, I'm here to do a story on the festival, any tips from a local?" Becca tried to alter the subject with her question.

"First time in Point Pleasant?" The desk attendant asked.

"Yes ma'am. I have recently graduated from Marshall but have not been to this area," Becca took the room key she was handed and placed it in her purse.

"Coming for the festival you should visit the old TNT area. It will get crowded tomorrow as most guests start to arrive on Friday. That's the place where they used to spot the Mothman. It's a wildlife sanctuary now, and get very dark at night," the woman spoke like she had been here many times.

"Okay awesome I will give it a go, anything for a good story," Becca was grabbing her luggage and walking away.

"Be careful young lady, strange things happen here, you watch out for yourself," the woman seemed to have more to say, but then Becca's phone rang. She looked at the screen to see it was Angie.

"Angie, you couldn't let me get to my hotel before you called to give me a hard time?" Becca was headed up the stairs to her floor.

"I just got to mine too. Girl let me tell you, the guy that was checking into the hotel behind me, phew my jaw bout hit the floor," Becca could already tell where this was going.

"Already flirting with the men there huh?" Becca chuckled.

"If God puts things in front of me, well you know what I gotta do. Momma needs a man to take care of her. Enough about me, how's podunk?" Angie actually sounded like she was curious.

"The area here next to the hotel is actually not bad. I mean I won't be taking any romantic get aways here," Angie was giggling on the other end, "but the people are nice. The lady at the desk just told me to go check out an old area where they used to spot Mothman," Becca was interrupted as Angie chimed in.

"I can see it now, "My First Glimpse of Mothman" an article by Rebecca Martin. You may win the Pulitzer for that," Angie chuckled again.

"I got a better chance of winning the Pulitzer for Mothman than you do with Mcdreamy there at your hotel," Becca waited for the response.

"Oh shit, look at you with that burn. You are prolly right, I gotta focus on beating your ass on this assignment anyways. I was thinking that we should up the odds, got to give you something to work for and make Mothman worthwhile," Angie said.

"I'm listening," Becca was afraid of what Angie was going to come up with.

"We are going to take a weekend vacation to Myrtle Beach and the winner gets free drinks, the loser pays for the nights at the bar. Makes it a little be more of a contest rather than just lunch," Angie finished her thought.

"I can be down for that. Better stock up your wallet, cause I'm coming in hot!" And with that Becca hung up the phone for dramatic appeal.

Becca got her clothes out and, and organized her items in her room. She was looking through the "things to do binder" that was on the desk by her window. She saw that there was a statue and a museum dedicated to Mothman just a few streets away. She decided to spend her Thursday getting to know the monster of Point Pleasant.

She walked across the street and down a block, and saw the statue of Mothman in the center of the street. There was a family here taking pictures of each child doing poses next to Mothman. Becca noticed that the backside on the statue was very muscular, and thought how strange for the sculptor to portray a monster as ripped, especially in the gluteal region.

When she came to the front of the statue she saw it's red eyes, and immense wings, the statue was done in silver except the eyes. She noticed that the statue had abs. Apparently Mothman was a gym rat. Becca chuckled at her own thought. She took out her phone and snapped a quick picture of the statue so that she could add the description into her story.

"Would you like me to take your picture next to the statue? Everyone needs proof they saw Mothman," A mans voice came from behind her.

Becca turned around to see exactly what she pictured being at the Mothman festival the following day. The man was in his 40's with long graying brown hair, which did not seem to ever get brushed, thick rimmed glasses, and an "I Believe" t shirt with a cartoon image of Mothman. The man was chubby although only in the belly region. Becca responded, "no sir. I am actually here to do a story for the paper and like to snap pictures to help me remember details for the story."

"Ah a journalist, so I take it you've never been to see the festival? What about coming to visit Point Pleasant outside of festival time?" The man asked.

"This is my first time. I'm not from here. I went to college at Marshall, and now I work at the newspaper in Huntington, but I moved from out of state," Becca explained.

"Did you know that we also have a museum dedicated to all we know of Mothman?" The man asked while pointing towards the door it appeared he had come out of.

"Yeah I was actually headed there next, and then on to the TNT farm to do a quick look around before all the people start to get here," Becca was turned back and looking at the statue again.

"You're in luck, I own the museum. First time visit is on me, just put in a good word during your story," he started to walk to the other side of the building, "follow me and I'll get you started."

Becca took another quick picture and followed the man to the front of the building. As they approached the corner she saw all of the souvenirs in the window and the title "Worlds Only Mothman Museum". They walked into the front door and it was there Becca saw the prices for entry. It was $20 per person to visit the museum.

"Thank you for allowing me to come here for free," Becca began to look around the building.

"No problem, like I said put in a good word. Feel free to ask me any questions while you are here as well. Some might say that I am a subject matter expert," He was now sitting behind what appeared to be his desk at the side of the front entrance.

Becca took in the surroundings of the museum. There were a lot of "aisles" to walk down. Most paths had glass cases with artifacts, or magazine and newspaper articles. There was a giant life sized statue of Mothman in one corner, and in another corner a TV was playing the Mothman story from one of those creature shows on TV.

She started the museum on the aisle that said "start here", it also had an arrow. Nice, very smooth Becca thought to herself. The first aisle housed the story of the first sightings of the Mothman. It seemed that young couples would go out to this old TNT area, which was as she found out a WWll munitions plant, and would report their sightings. They described a massive winged creature with red glowing eyes.

She continued reading through these newspaper articles from November of 1978, and then reached the end of the aisle. She saw that the aisle turned and went back for her to read down the other side. The first page she read told of the silver bridge disaster. One of the bridges that connected Point Pleasant to Ohio collapsed in December of 1978. 46 people died when the bridge collapsed.

Becca moved through all the stories related to the bridge collapse and then reached the stories of people who said they saw Mothman on the bridge right before the collapse. He was supposedly on the 13th pillar of the bridge, and he was a warning. Becca, not one to believe in this sort of thing breezed through these accounts and came to more pop culture artifacts.

There were a lot of set pieces from the early 2000's movie, "The Mothman Prophecies". There was a rug that Richard Geere used to warm up, his leather notebook, etc. Again Becca was breezing through this when she turned as she thought the man had said something to her. She turned back and realized it was the TV in the corner. The man from the desk was the one talking on the show, Matt Turner.

"Hey that's you on the show!" Becca was excited.

"Oh that, yeah I've done a ton of TV shows about Mothy," Matt said.

"Okay I do have some questions if you don't mind," Becca waited for him to say it was okay, after he nodded she continued, "what's up with the statue, why does he look human, like ripped, upright, etc?"

"Well when we commissioned to have the statue built, we used a combination of all first hand sightings. If you notice the statue that is in the corner over here," Matt got up from behind his desk and pointed at the statue, "that is another first hand perspective of what was described."

"They are a bit different, still both very human like. This one appears more moth like and the statue outside appears more superhero," Becca stated.

"The one outside was built two years before my museum. It was sculpted by Bob Roach. He also constructed the one in here, although this one was done from my personal sighting," Matt said, as if he was trying to hide this fact.

"Wait, you personally saw Mothman?" Becca was intrigued, although she didn't know why. This seemed exactly what you would think of this strange character.

"Yes ma'am, saw him in the mid 90's. I was on a date, I was driving my date back on the old TNT farm when she noticed him flying out from the tree line. We watched him fly across the road and into the other side of trees. I had been doing research for some time on his sightings and had been telling her the stories as we drove. We got out of the car, and that's when he flew down above the roof of my sedan. It seemed to be a warning as he didn't speak or make any noise but just flew off. That there in the corner is exactly what I saw, although the wings were spread," Matt finished as he looked over at Becca.

"Wow that's pretty damn scary. What happened to this lady friend of yours?" Becca was trying to see if she had another lead lined up.

"Your guess is as good as mine. Never heard from her again. I assume she packed her shit and fled town. The Moth seemed to have looked at her more than myself I'm not sure if that made her more fearful or what," Matt shrugged from behind his desk.

"Yeah I'm not going to lie, I'd have left too," Becca chuckled, "about the bri..." suddenly Becca's phone began to ring. She looked down, and saw it was Angie and put it on silent. "Sorry about that, can you tell me more about the Mothman's interaction with the bridge?"

"I'm not sure there's a lot more to tell. They say he is a omen, a warning if you will. Funny thing is he seems to show up every 7-8 years," Matt said smiling.

"Wait, there's a pattern?" Becca was jotting notes down on her phone now.

"For sure, it's like something calls it back. First time that we know of was in 1978-1979 area. The second time was a sighting around 1986, an older couple that was out watching for birds spotted him. Then my sighting came next in 1994. After that there were a few people who claimed to have sightings, but the only one that seemed plausible was a worker at the wildlife reserve, which is where the TNT farm used to be. The worker spotted him coming out of one of the old TNT buildings. The 2002 and 2010 spottings were very similar to this. It has been 10 years since he was last seen," Matt finished his historical story.

"Do you think that maybe it is gone?" Becca asked inquisitively.

"Honestly it seems like he's waiting, for what I don't know," Matt finished as someone else walked into the museum.

"Thank you for all your insight today sir I really appreciate you helping me out," Becca shook Matt's hand and exited through the front of the building.

By the time Becca got out and shut the door Angie was calling again.

"Hello, Angie, is everything okay?" Becca asked as she picked up the phone.

"Yes. I just had to tell you how my story was going so far,"

"Oh my god, I thought something had happened to you," Becca knew Angie never continuously called when they were both on assignment. "What's up? This better be good."

"Well you know the guy I was talking about earlier? He just asked me to get drinks tonight after the gubernatorial debate!" Angie was bursting with joy.

"Wow that was fast, maybe he wants in your pants," Becca was always giving Angie grief about how she always slept with men on the first date.

"Of course he does, who wouldn't," Angie chuckled.

"Better be careful, don't find any crazies out there. Speaking of, I just met the owner of the Mothman museum. Total creep, he even said he personally saw him. He's one of those guys on the monster shows. Seemed like he had a super weird fascination with the creature,"

"Sounds like he wants in your pants," Angie said sarcastically.

"Ew, I hope your guy turns out to like men, and just wants to be friends," Becca said sarcastically.

"Alright, alright, I gotta get back to doing actual journalism. You should get back to looking for clues Nancy Drew," Angie was the first to hang up this time.

"Bitch," Becca muttered as she put her phone back into her pocket. She walked back to her car, parked on the street in front of the hotel. She got in and pulled up directions to the TNT farm. She took the quick 10 minute drive, and pulled off onto the road which led through the old munitions area.

This area is now a wildlife reserve, where animals can roam free from a lot of human interaction. The road was not well taken care of, it was more potholes than road really. The amazing part was how remote this place seemed. There were some pull off spots where you could just look out into nature, Becca chose one of these to pull over and take in the scenery. When she got out she noticed how quiet it was. There was no sounds other than wind and birds.

Becca stayed here for 15 minutes before continuing deeper into the area. She began seeing the old bunker looking buildings of the munitions area. She had to admit looking at the sight of some of these places was enough to be fearful, let alone if you saw something out of place in the dark of night. It was the beginnings of any ghost hunter stories you see on TV; it was old, abandoned, screeched when the wind blew, rusty, and large enough to hold numerous secrets.

Lots of stories Becca seen in the newspaper clippings had stated that the sightings of Mothman were military related. Some said that it was a test flight suit, secret operations, etc. Becca could see how these things could be true as she made a turn around in the road and began to head back. She wanted to get back to the hotel before dark to begin writing her article, but also because this place was giving her the creeps.

Becca got back out on the highway and headed for the hotel. She stopped by a drugstore and got a few snacks to tide her over for the night and pulled up to her spot on Main Street. The attendant at the desk earlier had told her that it is difficult to find parking after Thursday, so she did all her running today knowing she may not get another chance.

Becca spent her night on the beginnings of her article, talking about the people and the atmosphere of Point Pleasant. She fell asleep to the TV in the background and her laptop on her lap. When she awoke, she was astounded by the fact that she did not remember dreaming. She was certain she would end up with a scary dream.

She took a long hot shower, and began to get her clothes ready. Becca was delighted in the weather outside. She wore a low cut white top, a new push up bra, and a black skirt. She was looking at herself in the mirror, trying to adjust her cleavage. With her shortened black hair, she was seeing herself as Courtney Cox in Scream. Becca knew that she could use sex appeal to get some good interviews.

The good genes she got were athleticism genes. She worked out 4 days a week every week. She was thin, but muscular. She did a lot of squats with her friends, which gave her the roundness of her backside. She was always watching to see if men would check it out as she walked by. The thing genetics fucked her on was boobs. Her boobs weren't even half a handful. She had asked her parents for the money to get bigger boobs if she graduated with honors from college. Now Becca is able to sport more than a handful, and gets many opportunities because of how they fit in tops.

Becca gave her body a nice shake to see how they looked as she moved. She bent over forward to make sure that they weren't going to topple out, then grabbed her phone and small backpack purse and headed downstairs. As she went down the steps she could see outside that people were already lining the streets. She hurried down the steps and out the door.

Once she got to the street she looked around and saw there were about a hundred people here so far, most congregated near the statue. She noticed that there were also vendor carts set up on the street now, although not opened yet.

"Heeelllooo how are you?" A tall bearded man asked Becca.

"I'm doing well thank you. And yourself?" She replied.

"Better now that you are here, here with your husband?" As the man asked Becca saw him stare directly at her tits.

"Here on business, and I'd like to get back to it if you don't mind," Becca went around a group behind the man and started for the other side of the square. Becca was afraid that the man was following her, she turned to check, and saw he had moved on to another woman, creep. Becca was approaching a group of younger women when her phone rang.

"Angie, I was wondering about you," Becca said laughingly.

"Got a little tied up last night to call," Angie sounded winded.

"Date went well I see," Becca said noticing the group of young girls were smiling at her.

"Well no sex if that's what you mean," Angie replied.

"I wasn't hinting at that," Becca chuckled.