Mothman is Real and He Works At a Denny's

The Drive

It's a warm evening in July, a group of friends are driving down a long, empty highway in Iowa. The three of them graduated high school a month ago and decided there was no better summer than this one to take their first road trip together. The group had no specific place in mind when planning their travels, they're just going to drive across some of the Midwest and stop by a variety of interesting places they've heard of. They'd been planning this trip for around three years. They spent those three years saving up money and on and off researching some more obscure destinations for them to visit.

The group isn't awfully far into their journey, they started in Colorado and are planning to make it to Ohio before turning around and making their way back home. It's 5:00 pm and the sun will set in about an hour. The three of them are feeling rather hungry as they did not eat lunch.

"Do you think we'll find somewhere to eat before we reach the hotel?" Asks Myth, the one sitting in the passenger seat. He's a pretty basic looking guy with a kind of narrow face, a little bit short, has a decent amount of freckles on his limbs, brown eyes, and ash brown hair which reaches his shoulders but is currently put up in a low man bun.

"I don't really think it matters, we can eat at the hotel." Replies Lazarus, who is currently laid across the entire backseat of the car. Lazarus is the oldest of the group (having started school a year later than they should have due to being born in November) and also the tallest. Lazarus is 5'10" and a half (6'1" with their current boots on), their eyes are steel blue, they have lobe piercings on both sides, two helix piercings on their left ear as well as an eyebrow piercing also on the left side. Their hair is naturally black, but most of it is dyed a very deep purple. The hair on the sides of their head is shaven short and undyed, the rest is parted on the left, falls on the right and stops at the bottom of their shoulder blades. They also wear glasses, the lenses are two different shapes, a circle on the left and a square on the right.

"I thought hotels only served breakfast."

"Yeah, but that's what room service is for."

"Nah, room service takes way too long, plus you have to get checked in and make it to your room before you can order it." Notes Teya, the one driving the car. She always seems a lot more responsible than she really is. For starters, she could really take better care of her lavender, chin-length hair which is riddled with split ends. For the rest of her appearance; green eyes, light brown skin, a Grecian nose and three piercings on the top of her right ear.

"So, if we don't find somewhere to eat on the way, you're saying we won't eat at all?" Myth questions, trying to annoy her.

"No, in that circumstance we would get room service, but otherwise we wouldn't." She may not be the most responsible, but she does tend to think things all the way through.

The 2002 Toyota Corolla continues to putter down the road, still no buildings in sight.

10 minutes pass, a street light appears, the first in a long while. Then a second, then a third, at first the lights continue to appear with very normal distances between them, but at around light 13 they seem to start getting closer together. This continues until they get to around 50 feet apart before anyone says anything.

"What's with all these streetlights..." Lazarus mumbles, sounding very tired.

"Huh? Oh yeah, that's weird, aren't there regulations for stuff like that? Seems like a waste of money to have that many in one spot." Myth wonders.

The streetlight shenanigans continue until a different bright light appears on the horizon; the fluorescent lights of a diner.

"Hm, what's that?" Myth gasps softly "Ooo, is that a Denny's?"

Lazarus snaps out of their sleepy fog. "Denny's? Man I love Denny's, they've got those pancake puppies or whatever, hey Teya, Teya hey," They start poking her in the shoulder "We should go there and we should get like French toast or onion rings or something for all of us to share. That would be so cool, I bet you've never even been there before, you should try the fries, I know you like those, the ones there have a funny wavy shape, it's pretty cool." Lazarus tends to have a lot of thoughts at one time and also tends to say all of them at once.

"Yeah, I haven't actually been to a Denny's before, or any breakfast restaurant for that matter. What else do they serve there?" Most people might get annoyed with the way Lazarus acts and speaks, but Myth and Teya see no problem with it, they actually find it rather endearing.

"Oh man, they have all kinds of stuff, most of it is really normal, and a lot of it is pancakes, which are all really good, but what's important is the crepes. Those are great—oh yeah! The kids menu! Don't sleep on the kids menu, that's where they hide the mac and cheese and—oh, we're here already?"

The group steps out of the car, Teya adjusts her coat, Myth tightens his hair tie and Lazarus fluffs their hair.

They approach the restaurant, the yellow, glowing sign and red strip lighting on the roof illuminates the mostly barren parking lot. The inside of the establishment also appears to be nearly empty, aside from a person or two at a few of the tables. Teya pulls open and then walks through the front door, holding it open for the other two to follow after her. The group looks around at the inside of the diner. Front counter straight ahead, booth seats on the right and tables on the left. There's a man standing behind the front counter, he's leaning on it with his elbow and resting his face on his hand. He's rather tall with brown skin and long, jet black hair that is starting to grey a little bit at the roots, he seems to be early middle aged. He is also wearing sunglasses with round, red lenses. Walking away from the booth seating is another employee. She's taller and slightly wider than the man at the counter. She is wearing a solid red head covering which leaves only her face visible, she also looks a bit older than the man.

The door shuts behind the friends and clicks softly, it has locked itself.