Chapter 1: A Road past Somewhere

The light was near late afternoon through the dusty window of the truckstop windowpane.

Tripping over a bag of dropped crisps near the peanuts wondering if she’d run into any unusual readings at the abandoned site mentioned on one of the maps listed online.

She grabbed a few quick options and drinks and quickly made her way to the register, briefly making eye contact with the man standing to the left of the register a few feet away.

She held her coffee in hand while pressing the door open with her shoulder on the way out, listening to the soft ring of the door.

Glancing up at the partly clouded sky, she noted that the weather should be good visibility to keep an eye on the sky that evening. 

Making her way back to the neutral colored, smaller SUV, now coated lightly in road dust of the gravel roads not far from there.

She was trying to eventually save up for one of those nice travel vans,  but did not quite have the funds just yet. 

So, it was also simple hotels and motels until then. 

This was one of the first few stops on a circle-around road trip. Planned to highlight the unusual. Possibly hauntings, abandoned places, cryptid sightings. 

Occasionally, (though not ideally) alone, but more preferably with a soon to join travel partner.

The road trip had a somewhat loose plan, but several major routes to reach points of interest at sightings of cryptids, unusual lights in the sky, and strange unexplained phenomena.

For now, was time to regroup. Figure out a more detailed plan.

One sight of abandoned buildings not far from there was supposedly haunted and even had reports of recorded unexplained lights nearby.

Should be a basic, likely uneventful start.

Some abandoned place photography, night sky watching, scanning for any readings, and getting out of there to minimize time alone in the dark.

She threw the supplies in the back seat and climbed into the car, briefly checking her surroundings before pulling out of the concrete drive. Her eyes meeting the man before from beside the register again as he stepped out and she reversed away.

• – – – – –

Later that evening.

It was dark.

She had expected that, but just how dark had felt different.

The plains had a vastness that made the dark feel even more vast when all you could see were the headlights of a car and the stars overhead.

She pulled up to the gps address, anticipation higher than she had planned.

It was a good thing she had brought a good flashlight, but she needed to be careful. She climbed out of the car and carefully stepped out onto the dust-coated gravel of the lot, flashlight and scanner in-hand, a camera strapped across her chest. 

She looked around the structure for a few minutes, snapping a few photographs and moving the scanner around for any unusual fluctuations of readings.

A sharp clatter suddenly caught her attention, her head swiveling around to the sound, spinning the flashlight in the same direction.

She looked around carefully, her heart pounding.

It might be a squatter, she reasoned.

“Hello…..?”

She called out tentatively into the dark.

She gasped at a hand reaching out from behind the shadows into the light. And moments after, the figure of a man stepping out into view. 

“Hello.”

“Oh, hey, you scared me…..Hi.”

Was all she could say as she blinked in surprise.

He was, oddly well dressed, in a dress coat and a near suit.

Unusual for an abandoned building complex not too close to a major neighboring city.

“Um…are you alright?”

He raised a hand to shield the light of the flashlight.

“Uh…..I could ask you the same. Why are you out here? It’s not safe.”

She paused, unsure of how to best answer, but looked down at her field reader and briefly held it up.

“I ah, was looking into abandoned places for photography and anything that might be paranormal. For a podcast.”

He lowered his hand, furrowing his brows now that she could see his expression and dark hair.

“That still seems quite dangerous.”

“Perhaps a bit, yes.”

The man looked back over his shoulder as he brushed his hands on his dress pants.

She was hesitant to ask now what he was up to in the dark of an abandoned place.

“Anyways, I ought to go,” she began before he suddenly interjected.

“Does this project you’re working on have a name?”

She paused, unsure about answering, but before she could think, she found herself reaching into her back pocket impulsively and grabbing one of her business cards.

“I’m still working on it. A bit of a work in progress, but it’s going to be a sort of almanac.”

“Almanac?”

“Yes, like weather and moon conditions with stories of what’s found. I—actually I have a card for it.”

She didn’t know why she was suddenly sharing this. Her adrenaline from the sudden fright still high.

The man’s brow raised, and she briefly wondered why she felt inclined to blurt that out at all.

“Sounds interesting, but it’s not safe here. 

Something in his voice sounded curious, but seemed to shift with another glance over his shoulder and she shifted on her feet.

“Perhaps you should leave. Maybe I’ll take a card,” he gestured. Her eyes slightly widened for a moment, something about his presence making her forget she had been clearly holding a few cards in her grip with the scanner.

Suddenly a loud crack in the background made her jump. The paper falling from her grasp and the flashlight shifted away from the man as he looked back.

“Um, goodbye?” she said quickly in confusion and alarm, turning to run towards her car at the noise that sounded a bit too much like a danger.

She vaguely registered the shutter of the camera in her hand as she turned to run.

Sprinting around the vehicle, she grabbed the door to the car and hopped into the driver’s seat  as fast as she could, peeling out of the gravel driveway and towards safety.

This time she caught the silhouette of what looked like a van further behind one of the buildings she had just left.

She double checked her camera and reader were safe and sped back towards the safety of the hotel for the night.

She’d think back to that moment talking to the man in the suit and wonder why he was there for the rest of the night.