Steven woke up.
He looked at the clock. It was 3:41 in the morning.
He sat up.
He felt sad. At first, he didn’t know why but then he remembered the day before. Dewy. Dewy was dead as far as Steven knew. He remembered the horrid, bloody creature that took him. It was a blured memory thanks to the high he had. But he knew. He remembered. He sat there, holding back his tears, trying not to wake his parents. It was Monday now. His parents didn’t care if he went to church, as long as they didn’t have to drive him. They weren’t church- goers. Steven had had gone to church but he had stopped going when he discovered his gateway.
Weed. Grass. Marijuana.
Whatever people called it.
He had started to think about going back. He regretted not going the day before because it was Sunday. He knew Reverend James would be there to guide him everyday anyway. Steven would tell him everything. James was very, very religous. He was so religous, he believed ghost and demons roaming Earth. Steven had hadn’t been a believer of cryptids but that changed when he met the mothman. There was no possible way not to believe.
So, Steven snuck out and went to the church. His parents were light sleepers so he had to be extra careful. He quickly put on his school clothes because he would be going there after the church visit.
He made it to the church. No one was there like usual.
He looked everywhere for James but he wasn’t there either.
But he found something on the reverend’s desk.
A note.
Dear Steven,
Steven thought it was from James at first. Wouldn’t anyone?
Sorry about James. He was just so perfect. Soon he will have a new, better form. Soon you will see him again. Oh, and your friend, Dewy, we don’t have him. Our mothman was shot in the leg by that blasphemous Gabbenstein. Poor moth, he was new too. Luckily, he survived, but he dropped Dewy. I would be worried. We would of just helped poor Dewy become better. Gabbenstein will kill him because he isn’t, in Gabbenstein’s opinion, God’s child. If he didn’t already tell you, he is apart of an infamous group known as the Ku Klux Klan. I’m sure you have heard of them.
Love, Eric, a Mothman Priest.
Steven dropped the note. He sat crying for at least four hours because when he looked at the clock in the office, it was 7:32, time for school.
Steven rushed to school. He decided to skip first period to get high with Kenneth. He hoped that would make him feel better.
Steven found Kenneth on the same shaded bench from the day before. He wore the same clothes so Steven guessed he never left. Then, again, Kenneth was a dirty person that didn’t care about changing being a hippy and all.
Steven sat beside Kenneth and picked up a blunt and lit it. Kenneth seemed almost passed out but Steven could tell he was awake because he had his eyes open and occasionally he would blink. Kenneth had put a boom box under the bench so Steven decided to turn it on.
Meanwhile, Gabbenstein was experiencing some knocking…
BANG, BANG, BANG.
…Or banging.
Gabbenstein knew what was on the other side of the cabin door-a mothman. It must of wanted Dewy. Dewy was sitting in the corner of the room tied up and with a fancy white and red handkerchief tied around his head and stuck in his mouth. Gabbenstein walked over to the left side of the hall and opened a storage bin. He shuffled through the overstuffed chest. He eventually took out a large shotgun. He took the tip of the gun and put it right against the door.
He fired.
This resulted in a large, bloody hole in the old wooden door. Gabbenstein opened it and almost gagged at the sight of a disorted (It didn’t have wings, as most don’t) mothman’s upper body blown to bloody chunks. He looked up when he heard a noise in the bushes.
Another mothman rushed out and ran towards the door. Gabbenstein slammed the door and locked it with deadbolts. The abomination broke through the door. The door was weakened because of the shotgun shot. The mothman jumped on Gabbenstein. It’s crooked, makeshift sharp teeth biting down on his shoulder. It seemed to s**k some of his blood.
Gabbenstein started to reach out for the shotgun. He grasped it and put it to the mothman’s head and blew its brains out. Blood and pink, meaty chunks of brain fell on him. He pushed the thing off him and stood up. He cracked his back and almost fell over. He was too old for this. He had already called his ‘Klan’ members on a small phone near the door. Soon they would be here to start the ritual for Dewy’s death.
Gabbenstein half walked half dragged himself to Dewy. He put his hand on Dewy’s soft, buzzed hair and rubbed it. He touched Dewy’s cheek and stroked it, “I see whyz they wantz youz,” He flinched and then said to himself, “No! Youz are notz like thatz anymoreses, Gabbensteinz!”
Dewy started to cry. He whimpered as Gabbenstein started touching him in lower places.
Soon, Gabbenstein heard chanting outside his door. He smiled and walked outside to see many men in white robes with pointy hats that covered there faces, “Hez right insidez.”
Two men came in and picked up Dewy. He struggled but couldn’t get free. They all started walking in a random direction.
They walked for hours and hours.
Ring!
School was out. Steven stood up. He had only gone to a few classes and then he returned outside. Kenneth had already left. He started to walk home but he heard someone calling his name.
“Steven.”
He turned around to see a man with a black and red cloak. A hood covered the man’s face, “Hello?” Steven asked, “Who are you?”
“Eric,” The man said.
Steven recognized the name from the letter, “What do you want?!” He commanded.
“Come,” Eric motioned to Steven to come.
Steven hesitated. Then he thought it couldn’t hurt to follow him since he didn’t care if he was killed. They both walked down to the road. Eric hopped into the driver’s seat of a dark car. Steven hesitated to go in.
“Don’t be shy, my child,” Eric comforted Steven, “We’re off to save good old Dewy!”
“Oh, in that case…,” Steven got into the passenger’s seat.
“Gabbenstein’s Ku Klux Klan have been walking for miles to a secluded clearing. Gabbenstein has a cabin in those woods. It’s a sort of shrine of his life,” Eric started up the car and started to drive.
“How do you know this?” Steven asked.
“The Brotherhood has many spies.”
Steven frowned, “Why are you called the Mothman Brotherhood?”
“Because,” Eric looked at Steven and then looked back to the road, “we believe in a demon known as Mothman. We haven’t been able to give him the right body. He needs a perfect body with wings, claws, and sharp teeth to be summoned. But the body has to be the right person.”
“You Satanist make me sick!”
“Well, we all have opinions, Steven.”
Steven suppressed a sigh and looked out the window.
They drove for about an hour when the car motor made a loud sound and the car broke down.
“S**t!” Eric exclaimed, “I already feel his soft skin slipping from my fingers!”
Steven heard this and almost went mad, “Damn you! You just want to take him and destroy him like you did to James!”
Eric got out and opened the hood of the car and examined it, “At this point, I just want to get my hands around that Gabbenstein’s neck!”
“So you’ll help me save Doy?”
Eric slammed the hood down, “We better move now. And quickly if we want to get there in time!”
They set out in the direction Eric pointed to. They were in a slow run, or a fast jog, because Eric told them they had awhile to go.
The chanting.
Gabbenstein stood on a wooden platform. It was a hanging stand.
But they weren’t using it.
Dewy was going to burn alive. A taste of the Hell Gabbenstein thought Dewy would go to. It was night now. Most of the men were gathered around Gabbenstein in the clearing. The rest were setting up a large, wooden cross and two were carrying Dewy. They were different members from before because the other two were tired of carrying him.
“We gatherz here today,” Gabbenstein talked in his croked voice to the crowd as loud as he could, “to makeses God proudz!”
The two men pinned Dewy against the cross that had been set up on the other side of the clearing. One of them held him up why the other took nails and crucified Dewy.
Gabbenstein walked to Dewy, smiling, and took the handkerchief from his mouth, “Scream,” He said.
And Dewy did so.
“Right here!” Eric pointed to the woods beside the road, “Right in the forest!”
The both turned to go in the woods but, before they could enter, three winged mothmen landed in front of him. Steven winced at their shrieks.
“Good,” Eric said calmly, “Just in time.”
More shrieks started to come from behind Steven. Steven spun around to see at least five unwinged mothmen with a few other cloaked men.
“Are we ready, Eric?” One of the Brotherhood priests said.
Eric nodded.
Gabbenstein walked away from Dewy as a ‘Klan’ member walked towards Dewy with a burning torch.
Right before the man lit the cross, a flying mothman flew in and crashed into him. They both caught on fire and fell to the ground.
“The Brotherhoodses is herez!” Gabbenstein croked.
“Yes, we are, and we’re going to burn you as you burned some many innocents!” Eric screamed back as he appeared from the woods.
The mothmen attacked the Ku Klux Klan members. But they were ready. Almost all the members pulled out small rifles and handguns and fired, easily destroying the mothmen and then pointing there guns at Eric.
“Well done,” Eric started to clap as a man in complete armor walked into the clearing with a large machine gun.
All the members redirected their aim to the man. The man did the same to them.
Eric smiled, “Fire.”
They all started shooting but the Klan members’ bullets had no effect on the man’s armor. The man started fire and killed most of the men. The rest either held up their hands or shot themselves in the head.
Blood scattered the clearing. Corpses lay everywhere. Steven, watching from the woods, had almost been shot. He looked out into the clearing and threw up.
Gabbenstein had hid under the hanging stand. As soon as he stood up, two Mothman Priest grabbed him and handcuffed him. Gabbenstein groaned as his body started to ache.
“That pain will soon end, Gabbenstein,” Eric patted Gabbenstein on his head, “You will join your subjects!”
Steven finished vomiting and ran out to the bloody clearing. He ran up to Dewy and started to tear the nails out with the back of the hammer he found on the ground.
“Thank ye, Stevie,” Doy rubbed his hands, “That hert like Hell!”
Steven smiled for the first time that day, “Good to see you alive, Doy!” Steven hugged Doy.
“Shawri, Ix, patch poor Dewy up,” Eric yelled across the clearing to two unhooded Brotherhood members.
“Lets get back home,” Steven said as he nudged Doy away from Shawri and Ix.
“Nonsense,” Eric laughed, “Not yet!”