Donny Thompson could barely keep his eyes open after driving all day. He'd hoped to make it farther before nightfall— at least into Tennessee, but construction had slowed his progress. Then an accident had forced him off the highway altogether. Now he found himself in Macon, a one-light town in the middle of nowhere. It looked like a quaint little place where the locals wouldn't appreciate Donny sleeping in his van on the street. Somedays, he couldn't catch a break, and today was one of those days.

He'd passed a motel a while back but preferred not to spend his money on a lumpy mattress and a thin pillow. He needed to save his funds for his next expedition. Key West itself would not be cheap, let alone chartering a boat, though it would be worth it if he could get evidence of a new aquatic species.

Donny shifted in his seat to ease the pressure on his aching ribs. To add to his pains, he was still healing from his battle with the Goatwoman. Yes, the Goatwoman. A scientist who'd experimented with her DNA along with that of her husband, the Goatman, in hopes of curing his early-onset dementia. However, she only succeeded in turning them both into grotesque killers who hunted their prey in the national parks— a fact the government worked very hard to keep secret.

Before the clandestine government organization, the Veridical Project, had whisked away the Goatwoman's body, Donny had managed to squirrel away evidence of her existence including photos, high-quality video, and several hairs. He'd done this for two reasons. One, in case he needed to use it as a Get Out of Jail Free card. And two, Donny wanted to show the leader of the Veridical team that Donny was resourceful, maybe even good enough to hire as an independent contractor. Or possibly someone they could trust with their secrets if there was a little quid pro quo.

He hoped it worked out because Donny had barely survived his deadly encounter with the Goatwoman. It was only with help from his new friends, Nick and Epi Hayes, along with Epi's mother, Charlotte, that he survived. It wasn't something he liked to do— work with others. It was too risky. They'd almost died at the horns of the genetic freak. No, he'd tackle his future adventures alone. That way, if things went sideways, Donny would be the only casualty, which was fine with him. He was living on borrowed time anyway. Let the good people of the world live their naive happy lives, and he'd fight the monsters.

Donny was stirred from his musings by an SUV racing towards him like a bat out of hell. Jesus. Where was the fire? A second later, he got his answer when something unbelievable detached itself from the SUV's roof and took flight into the dark night. The thing was large with a wingspan like a condor. But it couldn't be. That majestic raptor had a range from California to the Rockies, so it couldn't be in the Kentucky hills. No way. It hadn't been seen this far east in a hundred years, but Donny couldn't think of another bird that could match the size of what he'd just witnessed.

Sure, there were cryptids that fit the description— the Thunderbird, the New Jersey Devil, or the Mothman. Donny would know. He was an amateur cryptozoologist, which was why he was so excited to search for a living dinosaur in the waters of Key West. However, he was tired, and it was pitch black on this desolate road, so what he saw could've been anything. Or nothing. Not that he would get the chance, but he'd need a second look before he claimed the thing was a cryptid, though it was more likely he just needed to rest his tired eyes.

From his GPS, Donny could see there was a bigger town next to the highway on the other side of the mountain. Interstates always had Ride & Share lots— the perfect place for him to park and sleep in his bed in the back of the van. Yet, the road ahead had more twists and turns than Donny thought possible. Growing up in Michigan, he was used to straight flat roads, but at this hour, there shouldn't be any traffic. He could take it slow, and when he reached Pineville, he should be able to find a place to crash for the night.

After cracking a window to let in some fresh air, Donny turned his high beams back on and took the first of many tight turns up the mountain. The posted speed limit said forty-five miles an hour, but he only felt comfortable going thirty, sometimes less. The road was narrow, and the drop-off was steep. Donny had a very healthy respect for heights, and he couldn't afford for anything to happen to his van either. It was his only means of transportation, as well as his home.

For his purposes, he'd converted a full sized Chevy Express van into a rolling house with insulated walls, a bed, a portable kitchen, an entertainment center, and storage for all his possessions. It kept costs down while he traveled the country hunting for the unknown while avoiding bed bugs and mice that typically haunted old roadside motels in these backwater towns.

All was going well; he'd made it a third of the way up the mountain without incident. The giant bird had been written off as his desire to find the unusual wherever he looked, a problem for most cryptozoologists and one he worked hard to avoid. Harder still was finding a good radio station with all the interference from the mountain. The one thing he didn't have in his van was satellite radio, which would be a nice addition while traveling cross-country. Normally, he didn't mind. Local stations gave him a sense of the political and social climate that he'd encounter when forced to stop for food, gas, or sleep, but tonight his dial offered mostly static. He turned it off rather than get frustrated and settled into his drive.

It was a good thing he wasn't distracted, because around the next bend, a giant man leaped from a rock to stand in the middle of the narrow road. He looked like a professional wrestler: big, ugly, and menacing. Raising a hairy arm, he held up a hand with outstretched long fingers. Besides an obvious death wish, there was something off with him, but Donny didn't have time to figure it out. If he didn't do something quick, he'd run him over.

Donny slammed on his brakes.

The tires skidded across the pavement, but he quickly realized he wouldn't stop in time. Donny sucked in a breath. The air whistled by his teeth. Acting on pure instinct, he jerked the wheel towards the mountain's rock face. Every muscle in his body tensed as he missed the man by inches. A closer look revealed it wasn't a man. Its squat head had large red eyes and a wide mouth. The lips were pulled apart to reveal rows of sharp teeth. But it was only a quick glimpse before his van crashed into the mountain.

Metal crunched on stone. Donny pitched forward. His seatbelt locked, keeping his face from hitting the windshield. Surprisingly, the crash wasn't violent enough to deploy the airbags, but it was bad enough to spin the van around, so Donny faced the creature.

And it was a creature.

Besides its hideous face, the monster's limbs were too long to be human. Its body was covered in coarse hair, and thin antennas jutted from its round skull. A gasp escaped Donny's lips before he could clamp them shut.

The creature oozed dread from every pore as if it were a pheromone. If it was possible, the thing was more hideous than the Goatwoman, and that was before it unfurled a set of thick wings that had been tucked behind its back and flew off into the night.

When Donny regained his senses, he undid his seatbelt, kicked open his dented door, and stumbled into the road. Besides his own rattled breathing, the night was quiet— too quiet. He scanned the sky overhead but couldn't see a thing. The clouds hid even the stars, making him feel utterly alone, like he was the last man on the planet. A shiver ran down his spine. He hugged his body to keep it from shaking but was unsuccessful.

He tried to tell himself that it was his imagination, that he was tired, or had gone mad. But he knew monsters were real. That was a fact. The Goatwoman had been real. He had the evidence to prove it.

So why couldn't theMothman be real too? In his head, that's what he'd already labeled thecreature. Given his encyclopedic knowledge of all things strange and unknown,what he'd seen most closely resembled the famous monster from Point Pleasant,West Virginia. And if that was true, Donny and this little town were in for aworld of pain.