Caspian stood in front of me breathing hard, axe hanging at his side. A sprinkling of blood had gotten on his face. My eyes felt dry because I wasn’t blinking. My body was locked up in shock—ramrod straight. He looked at me, saw my reaction, then took two steps towards me and fell to his knees at my feet, dropping the axe. The rage bled out of his face.
My eyes went to his hands, needle-sharp talons tipped his fingers, webbing between each digit. My eyes slid up to Caspian’s face and his pupils were large and black, no light to make them shine and barely a sliver of the brown color lining the outer rim.
Caspian reached around me and I felt him untie my wrists and the rope fell down.
“I tried to be the perfect man for you,” his voice wavered. He reached up and I stilled as those vicious-looking claws came towards my face. He pressed his thumb to my trembling lip. His eyebrows pinched in concern.
“You’re terrified,” he started, his voice cracking. Tears slid out of his eyes, which were slightly larger than normal, almost alien-looking. Caspian clutched both my arms in his hands and started to cry, his body trembling.
Movement caught my eye and I looked up to see Loren walking a wide circle around me, his tranquilizer gun aimed at Caspian’s middle.
“Caspian,” I said, my voice a whisper. He looked up at me with those alien-big eyes, holding the tiniest bit of hope. “Caspian,” I said again, my eyes darting towards Loren. A hummed growl reverberated out of him as he saw the man slinking. The tears dried and his muscles flexed as he stood up tall. He moved in front of me, giving me his wide back—blocking me, protecting me.
Along his spine was a long dorsal fin, the bony protrusions between the webbing ended on sharp spikes. I heard the thwap of the dart being shot and saw Caspian’s body jerk as it hit him.
“Caspian!” I tried to reach out and grip him, make sure he was okay, but he darted forward, barrelling towards Loren. He moved fast and the second tranquilizer dart missed him.
“Shoot him! Use the rifle!” Loren barked now that his own life was on the line.
“No!” I screamed.
Goosebumps suddenly popped on my arms, like a chilling breeze of air had suddenly blasted off the mountain. Static hummed uncomfortably in my head. Most of us suddenly stopped and turned towards the sky, mouths agape.
Two red eyes burned into us from above. Two huge moth wings, black and brown, stretched and pumped. Mothman floated above us like a god with his wide arms outstretched. His leather duster flapped wildly but his hat stayed steady. Dizzy pressure filled our minds.
As Loren struggled with Caspian, the other two men dropped to their knees and raised their hands towards the sky in awe.
“My God,” one mumbled over and over.
“An angel!”
Brandon looked terrified and fell to his knees too, his head craning to look up. Loren tried to hold Caspian off as he looked on with wide eyes at the creature he’d really wanted. The one he was willing to do anything to catch. Captain Ahab and his white whale finally face to face.
“It’s Mothman!” Loren barked but no one listened. “It’s not an angel. It’s a beast!” He growled. Caspian lunged at Loren, tackling him to the ground. Loren gripped Caspian by the shoulders above him, holding him off as Caspian tried to lunge and snap at his neck with those amazingly horrible teeth. Loren's face was a mix of anger and hope. Anger that he was so close to his goal and might be thwarted, but infused with hope that his dream might now come to life.
One of the men cried out in pain and blood started to trickle from his ears.
“It’s talking inside my head!” He wailed in agony and delight. Loren punched Caspian and then kicked him off. I didn’t know where to look.
“The angel is talking to me!” The man cried out again, so happy and in so much pain. Blood began to leak from his eyes as Mothman finally touched down, his leather boots smacking the bridge. His wings folded close to his body, disappearing inside the back of his leather duster.
“What is he saying?” The other man asked with wide eyes.
“He said…” he cut off as blood gushed thickly from his ears. He groaned in agony, his voice began to slur, the words a sloppy mess as they crawled from his mouth, “we’re a bunch of hillbilly fuckwits.” Mothman confidently strode forward, pulled a long-barrelled revolver up, and shot off a bullet into the bleeding man’s head. It split into the man's face, bursting the back of his head like a water balloon—a rapid gush of liquid barfed out the broken back of his head, spraying out behind him for me to see.
My throat strained and ached as I tried to scream. Only a rasp hitched out from my mouth.
“W- what?” The live man asked in confusion, sounding like a confused, hurt child. His angel had called him a fuckwit. His angel just burst a man’s head open. Mothman swiveled his gun to him and did him the same service he’d done the other. This time, I managed to slam my eyes shut.
I heard movement behind me and jerked around. Loren was clutching the tranquilizer gun and three thick metal darts were buried in Caspian’s gut. Caspian laid on his back, giving that inhuman gurgled growl, his eyes pure rage. He was drugged to nearly complete paralysis.
Loren raced towards me, I turned to run but his thick arm came around my shoulder, pulling me into him. The sour smell of fermenting sweat leaked from his body. Caspian’s eyes widened but he couldn’t move, his body locked up.
My eyes pinged to Mothman. Across his leather coat, I noticed a fresh collection of claw and teeth marks that looked very similar to Caspian’s.
A trail of smoke lifted from under Mothman’s hat, twirling up towards the sky. He lifted a hand and pinched a cigarette from his mouth, flicking it on the ground and stomping it out with his boot. My eyes lingered on his hand. His skin was black and shiny, reminding me of wet dirt. His fingernails were more like little claws, thick, sharp, and black.
Two round red, glowing orbs peered out from under a leather hat and seemed to settle on me. I could see nothing discernable about his face, just shadowed blackness. He looked no different from when I saw him in the woods. When I thought he’d come to kill me. He hadn’t though. He’d saved me from the same fate as the cameraman. From the same fate as Caspian’s bandmates.
