Darkness Falls

Chapter 3: Junkyard Mothman

Vanessa turns just in time to see her father's spell bounce back at the family. "NOOO!!" she sits bolt upright in bed breathing heavily. After calming down she looks around her room then she looks at the widow and sees it's still night time. 'a nightmare about the night we were trapped in the weird dimension.' She glances at the clock which reads 4:30am. She decides to go for a walk in town to clear her mind.

-in town- (a few minutes later)

Robbie shakes a can of black spray paint and then finishes painting a big X over a campaign poster for the mayor's new city ordinance. "protection again the flu... haha... protect this!"

"Robbie?" Vanessa question having walked out of the ally close to where Robbie was vandalizing public property.

"VANESSA?!" Robbie says startled. "don't scare me like that... I thought you were a monster." He takes a deep breath and then goes back to painting on the wall. "what are you doing out this late?"

"clearing my head. What are you doing?" Vanessa raises an eyebrow.

"making art." Robbie replies with a grin. "just about done."

"hey you kids?!" a voice from down the street yells.

"oh! Time to go!" Robbie says darting off into the ally.

Vanessa follows close behind him as they run towards the city dump.

Once they reach the dump they duck behind some old cars. Oddly enough as they are running something trips the security gate causing it to automatically close.

Robbie chuckles looking through the broken car windows. "lost him."

"what was that all about?" Vanessa questions.

"oh I just almost got busted for graffiti it's not that big of a deal but I probably would have had to clean it up and I don't wanna do that so... I ran." He glances at Vanessa with a small smirk. "it's fun."

"I don't understand what is so fun about it." Vanessa replies confused. "getting yourself in trouble does not seem fun to me."

"well the thrill of trying not to get caught is what makes it the most fun..." Robbie pouts slightly then slips both his hands into his pockets. "gee you act like you've never tagged a wall before."

"tagged a wall?" Vanessa raises an eyebrow.

"yeah." Robbie replies still with his eyebrow cocked. "it's fun... you know what fun is right?"

"fun... I think you and I have different definitions of fun." Vanessa grumbles.

Before Robbie can explain further there is a rattling and then a bang as some metal is moved around someplace nearby.

Robbie stands up carefully and looks around. "I think he's still looking for us!?" Robbie hisses. "I thought for sure we lost him!?"

"well serves you right for thinking you'd get away without consequence." Vanessa smirks.

Robbie glances at Vanessa. "you do realize your with me right? If I get found and have to clean up the paint they'll think you're in on it too. Technically you're in just as much trouble as I am."

Vanessa frowns. "riiiiight... I hadn't thought about that, so how do we get away then?" She asks looking towards the noise to see if she can see whoever it is that is looking for them.

"we need to find another way to the exit and get there without being seen." Robbie replies sliding back down to the ground to hide behind the car again. "the only problem is the exit is closed right now and the only other way out is through a hole in the wooden fence on the other side of the dump."

"closed?!" Vanessa questions kneeling by Robbie. "but we just came in that way!?"

"shhhh." Robbie nods and glances around the car to look at the closed gate. "relax i'm sure the gate being closed isn't a bad thing... wait a second... if the gate is closed then how did the guy following us get in?"

After Robbie says this a man walks out from behind a pile of trash carrying a lantern.

"oh no worries." Robbie says with a smirk. "that's the dump guard. His job is to make sure nobody is out here after hours getting into stuff."

"but we're out here..." Vanessa replies.

"yeah but if we ask him to open the gate for us I'm sure he'll understand." Robbie stands up and takes one step out from behind the car. "excuse me sir co-"

Before he can finish his sentence a large human like thing with big black wings leaps into the center of the light coming from the lantern. It swings and knocks the light onto the ground and then eats the man whole.

Vanessa having seen this from behind the car grabs Robbie and pulls him back to the safty of being hidden behind the car. "get down you fool!"

Robbie is stricken silent by what he just saw. "the thing just ate that guy..." he keeps mumbling over and over.

"pull yourself together Robert!" Vanessa growls. "we need to get out of here."

Robbie stares forward looking at nothing until her words finally reach his ears. He grabs the journal from his pocket and flips it open. "Moth man... eats stray dogs and hobos... but the guard wasn't a hobo..." he looks at Vanessa hoping for an explanation.

"well it doesn't take much for a cannibal to start hunting prime meat." Vanessa hisses. "come on we need to get to the hole in the fence."

"right." Robbie looks at the book again and then puts it away after shaking his head. "it's too hard to read this in the dark anyways. Come on. And be quiet."

The two make their way to the wooden fence on the other side of the dump and find it boarded up.

"so where is this hole you spoke of?" Vanessa asks searching the fence in the dark for any sign of a way out.

"it used to be right here." Robbie replies. "it looks like the old man finally fixed the wall..." he turns around disgruntled but before he can devise a plan to get out of the dump he realizes the monster has followed them. He cups his hand over his mouth and points.

Vanessa follows his pointing finger and also realizes the monster has seemed to follow them though for the time it still seems unaware of their presence. Vanessa looks around quickly and finds a weird door that has appeared seemingly from nowhere. Her eyes light up instantly as she recognizes this door as one of several magic doors that come and go from reality. She grabs Robbie's arm and points to the door.

Robbie protests this pointing to a page in journal 3 that says to avoid going into the magical doors.

Vanessa glances over at the monster and then at the door. She knows the door won't be there forever but the chance of the monster realizing they were there was more likely to happen then the door leading someplace wonderful. So the question quickly becomes would she risk the odds of the door or take her chances with the creature.

The creature lets out a loud screech and begins running towards Robbie and Vanessa. Too late to think about the odds it is time for action.

Vanessa yanks Robbie along behind her towards the door while he screams like a girl. She pulls the door open and the two disappear inside slamming the door shut behind them.