Darkness Falls

Chapter 9: Mothman

A few days passed Venessa kept working with Robbie. They were on their first case together. after having done all the research Robbie went around town asking anyone if they had seen anything weird lately. There were a few people who mentioned seeing the moth creature lurking by the city dump at night, but almost everyone in town knew about that, they just locked their door and windows.

"Do you think we can take on a mothman?" Robbie asks.

Vanessa shrugs. "It'll be tricky but yeah."

Robbie nods. "We can trap it using bright lights and maybe a dog."

Venessa nods. "A fake dog would work." she thinks for a moment. "I'm sure it has some kind of lair where it's hiding in the daytime. we can trap it, once it's exposed to sunlight it'll turn to stone."

"Are you sure?" Robbie asks.

she nods. "I've seen it before." she says. "Trust me it'll work. we just need a sturdy box to keep it in."

"It's too strong for any regular box and even Stanford mentioned that it can turn into hundreds of tiny moths." Robbie says. "So what we need is a glass box." he pauses for a moment. "or a coffin..." he snaps in realization. "I might have just the thing actually."

"a coffin?" she questions. Then she remembers his parents run the funeral home.

"yes we have a new model but it isn't selling well." he says. "It's a glass coffin. It locked shut because it was for viewing and my folk didn't want anyone climbing in because it is heavy. we only have one though and I'm not sure dad would be too happy if I borrowed it."

"Well, let's look anyway and see what we can come up with." she says. They go to the funeral home and Robbie finds the one he had been talking about. "See, it kind of looks like the one from Snow White. the glass top lifts off and lowers down. it's not on a hinge because it was too heavy for the hinges."

"this could work." she says. "we just need a way to lure the monster into it in the first place."

"Well, they like to eat dogs and hobos. Maybe we can get some pet hair from the groomer and make a fake dog?" Robbie suggests. "but I still don't see how we would be able to use this."

"leave that part to me." she says.

Together the two kind of barrow the glass coffin and lid. They take it out to the dump under the big light and tie the lid up to the lamp post and hang it carefully in the air. They borrowed some pet hair from the animal groomer who had a big garbage bag full of stinky pet hair. They use this to make a sort of doll they place inside the coffin base.

They position themselves behind the old dump building near the lamp post, and wait for nightfall.

They had built a barrier around themselves so that moth man couldn't sneak up on them.

it was now dark, the light was on and the air had a sort of distinct chill. Robbie was fine because of his hoodie but Venessa was kind of cold. The wind was light and was just barely grazing through their hair while they waited with bated breath to see if the moth man would even show up today.

The two waited for a while before deciding to sit down. Robbie held the rope tied to the glass case while they tried to quietly watch and see if the mothman would come take their bait.

Vanessa whispers. "Maybe it wasn't fooled because the dog isn't moving."

Robbie shrugs. "maybe." he glances towards the exit.

nearby here a tin can get smashed. when they turn they realize the beast had already been in the dump toward the back. maybe it lived there or something? also it can fly so that might explain that too.