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140. Ooo Mothman! (BELOW) · The Book-Watchers

0:05
Speaker 1: Neonic Void Productions presents....
0:25
Speaker 2: Like, I went to this restaurant. There's like this chain restaurant.
0:29
Speaker 2: It's called... Uh, like it's called like the, like ale house.
0:33
Speaker 2: Like it's depending on the area, it'll have like a
0:34
Speaker 2: different name, but it's always like ale house or brew house.
0:37
Speaker 2: So like in Orlando, there was a chain called Orlando
0:41
Speaker 2: ale house or Orlando brew house, right? Orlando brewery. Um,
0:46
Speaker 2: it's basically like Chili's Applebee's, but their own version of
0:50
Speaker 2: like their own local chain version kind of deal. And, uh,
0:54
Speaker 2: they had a advertisement for like a really, really hot,
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Speaker 2: like very spicy, um, um like buffalo sauce right or
1:04
Speaker 2: like not buffalo sauce but like a wing sauce right
1:07
Speaker 2: and they had their signature dish which is like a
1:09
Speaker 2: like their signature dishes are called zingers which are just
1:12
Speaker 2: chicken tenders and they had one they had one dish
1:17
Speaker 2: called mount saint hell they had one sauce called mount
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Speaker 2: saint helens which was supposed to be one of their
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Speaker 2: spiciest and they had a whole dish where there were
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Speaker 2: what they called the zinger mountain melt which was basically
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Speaker 2: loaded fries with the zingers on top and the zingers
1:28
Speaker 2: were bathed and the mount saint helens hot sauce And
1:31
Speaker 2: I decided, you know what, like by this point at
1:33
Speaker 2: that time, I'd been living in Orlando for a few months.
1:36
Speaker 2: And every time I'd go someplace and ask for something spicy,
1:40
Speaker 2: extra spice or salsa, and I'm trying it, no spice whatsoever.
1:45
Speaker 2: Like there was no heat to it whatsoever. I'm eating
1:48
Speaker 2: it and I'm like, I'm not even getting a tickle
1:52
Speaker 2: from this. Like maybe like a little zing, right? Just
1:56
Speaker 2: a slight little zing or like a slight little tingle.
2:01
Speaker 2: but no spice whatsoever no bite right and so i'm
2:07
Speaker 2: like okay well i'm gonna try this because so far
2:10
Speaker 2: nothing else i've tried in this in this state has
2:12
Speaker 2: been like actually spicy i try it and i'm like
2:17
Speaker 2: okay so there's a little bit of heat here but
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Speaker 2: it's more of like that vinegary kind of taste that
2:25
Speaker 2: you get from buffalo sauce where it's like it's more
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Speaker 2: zingy than actually like Spicy kind of like a zing
2:34
Speaker 2: salt vinegar, slight little spice to it. Yeah. But there
2:38
Speaker 2: was no bite to it whatsoever. I'm eating the mountain.
2:41
Speaker 2: I'm eating this. I'm like, this is supposed to be
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Speaker 2: the hottest hot sauce they have. This is the hottest
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Speaker 2: wing sauce. Like this is nothing. I'm, I'm eating it
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Speaker 2: like a pro I'm chowing down like a pro. I'm
2:50
Speaker 2: totally like going to town. And, uh, I went with
2:53
Speaker 2: some friends and they were like, really, that's not real.
2:55
Speaker 2: That's not spicy to you at all. And I was like, no,
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Speaker 2: I'm eating it and I'm not even feeling the burn.
3:00
Speaker 2: And they were like, can we try? I was like, yeah,
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Speaker 2: it's not spicy at all. They try it and they
3:04
Speaker 2: all died. These were all Florida natives. They couldn't handle it. Wow.
3:10
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I'm just looking at them like, y'all some,
3:16
Speaker 2: y'all some bitches.
3:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, y'all some bitches.
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Speaker 2: Y'all some bitches. You telling me that you can't handle
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Speaker 2: this level of spice? This is nothing. Literally nothing. Yeah.
3:31
Speaker 2: So anyway, speaking of spice, we are not reviewing a
3:34
Speaker 2: spicy book, by the way, but we are going to
3:37
Speaker 2: be reviewing a... Oh, before I get into that. All right. Yes. Hello. Hi.
3:41
Speaker 2: Welcome to Book Watchers. I'm Jacob. I'm one of your hosts.
3:45
Speaker 1: Hi.
3:45
Speaker 2: I'm Mario. And of course, you know, Devin. It's me.
3:51
Speaker 1: It is I.
3:55
Speaker 2: What's good?
3:55
Speaker 3: Let's crack it. And of course, in the description below,
3:58
Speaker 3: you'll see a linky link. I'll take you to a
3:59
Speaker 3: link tree of all the other stuff. And then the
4:01
Speaker 3: Onyx Void Productions family, a podcast. Go listen to the
4:04
Speaker 3: other shows during this month of ooky spooky season. Ookity spookity.
4:11
Speaker 3: So what are we talking about today? What book?
4:17
Speaker 2: In the spirit of Halloween, we are reviewing another horror novel.
4:21
Speaker 2: Horror novel. Goddamn, we got to learn how to pronounce
4:23
Speaker 2: that word right. Because every time I say horror. Yeah,
4:27
Speaker 2: every time I say horror, people say, like, what did
4:28
Speaker 2: you call me? I was like, horror. Yeah, you're a whore.
4:32
Speaker 2: Not whore. I mean, you are, but that's not what
4:35
Speaker 2: I was calling you. All right. So anyway, we are
4:40
Speaker 2: reviewing a... This is more of a novella, really. It's
4:44
Speaker 2: called Below. Below. Below, below. This is Below by Laurel Hightower.
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Speaker 2: So this is a creature feature novel. So there's going
4:55
Speaker 2: to be a lot of this. So this book has
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Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of like creatures. The main
5:01
Speaker 2: theme of the novel is actually centered around the Mothman.
5:06
Speaker 2: So if you get the book, if you look up
5:08
Speaker 2: the book or if you're if you're watching our video,
5:11
Speaker 2: you'll see that the cover of the book. has a figure,
5:15
Speaker 2: a winged figure with big, bright red eyes. So that's
5:19
Speaker 2: supposed to be the Mothman. But, you know, every time
5:21
Speaker 2: I see, like, images of the Mothman, it doesn't look
5:24
Speaker 2: like a moth. It kind of looks like a bat
5:26
Speaker 2: with really big red eyes. Yeah. But it's supposed to
5:30
Speaker 2: be the Mothman. Honestly, the one, like, image of the
5:34
Speaker 2: Mothman that I really liked in, like, popular media was
5:37
Speaker 2: from Ben 10. From Ben 10 Ultimate Alien.
5:40
Speaker 1: Yeah.
5:41
Speaker 2: Yeah. Or like the sequel to Ben 10 where he's
5:45
Speaker 2: a teenager and he gets his new set of alien
5:48
Speaker 2: transformations and he turns into Big Chill. Big Chill is
5:51
Speaker 2: literally the Mothman. Like, see, that's the Mothman right there.
5:54
Speaker 2: That's the Mothman. But other depictions of the Mothman always
5:57
Speaker 2: seem to make him look like a bat or a
5:59
Speaker 2: bird of some kind. It's like, that's not a moth.
6:03
Speaker 3: Unless you talk about that big statue with the big ass.
6:07
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Big ass that's completely polished from all the
6:10
Speaker 2: people rubbing it and smacking it.
6:11
Speaker 3: Hey, it's dummy thick, okay? I've never seen a dummy
6:15
Speaker 3: thick ass like that, okay? Someone took the time to
6:17
Speaker 3: mold that ass.
6:19
Speaker 2: They did. They put a lot of time and effort
6:22
Speaker 2: and they gave the Mothman a thick ass. Yeah. But anyway, yeah,
6:30
Speaker 2: it was great. I wish I could go see that,
6:31
Speaker 2: but I forgot where it was and I don't think
6:35
Speaker 2: I'm going to be able to take a trip out
6:36
Speaker 2: there anytime soon, but Anyway, so to jump into this,
6:40
Speaker 2: so this story, so like if you're watching our video
6:43
Speaker 2: or if you look up the book, you'll see that
6:44
Speaker 2: it's actually a very short book. So this is a
6:46
Speaker 2: very short novel. I read it in like, like I
6:49
Speaker 2: read it in like a couple of days. And, um,
6:53
Speaker 2: my edition of the book was actually, um, this is,
6:57
Speaker 2: this one was actually sold by, uh, by a publisher, local, uh,
7:01
Speaker 2: local here to San Antonio. called Ghoulish Books. Though I heard,
7:05
Speaker 2: though Ghoulish Books did recently close down and they reopened
7:08
Speaker 2: under a different name. I forgot what the new name is.
7:10
Speaker 2: But if you're in San Antonio, go check it out.
7:13
Speaker 2: They have a lot of horror books there. They have
7:15
Speaker 2: their own printing. They have their own publishing. They publish
7:18
Speaker 2: their own books. So like a lot of local authors
7:21
Speaker 2: here in San Antonio publish their own books. I have
7:23
Speaker 2: another book on my shelf from a local San Antonio artist. Mm-hmm.
7:29
Speaker 2: a local San Antonio author. Um, I still need to
7:31
Speaker 2: get around to reading that, but I got like three
7:33
Speaker 2: books ahead of it. Uh, I funny stories like I,
7:36
Speaker 2: about that is I actually keep pushing it down my
7:38
Speaker 2: to be read because there's several books that recently came
7:41
Speaker 2: out or I recently bought that I've been wanting to
7:43
Speaker 2: read for ages. And now that I finally have the books,
7:46
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, well, these are going to the front
7:48
Speaker 2: of the line. So now I got to read those. Um,
7:52
Speaker 2: but below is, uh, this was published back in 2022, uh,
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Speaker 2: Like I said, the central theme is the Mothman. When
8:03
Speaker 2: I read this book, I will say that the Mothman,
8:06
Speaker 2: this is not going to be some novel that basically
8:10
Speaker 2: turns the Mothman into this horrendous creature that that attacks
8:15
Speaker 2: and that's going to be like killing people or anything
8:17
Speaker 2: like that. Surprisingly, the Mothman follows the traditional folklore about
8:22
Speaker 2: the Mothman because usually in local folklore, usually in like
8:27
Speaker 2: most popular folklores surrounding the Mothman is that the Mothman
8:30
Speaker 2: never actually like kills people or attacks people. It usually,
8:36
Speaker 2: it's always usually showing up as like some form of omen,
8:39
Speaker 2: like a warning. Like the most famous here, at least
8:42
Speaker 2: here in the U.S., because the Mothman is a is
8:45
Speaker 2: a U.S. It originates here in the U.S. and the
8:48
Speaker 2: stories of him at least originate here in the U.S.
8:51
Speaker 2: And the most famous story about him was about a bridge. Actually,
8:55
Speaker 2: let me look up that bridge. It was the Silver
8:59
Speaker 2: Bridge Bridge.
9:03
Speaker 3: A bridge that collapsed December 15th, 1967, connecting Point Pleasant,
9:09
Speaker 3: West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio. So it was a bridge
9:16
Speaker 3: that was connecting a city from West Virginia to Ohio
9:19
Speaker 3: and had a collapse. And apparently the Mothman showed up
9:24
Speaker 3: there a couple of days before or showed up there.
9:27
Speaker 3: And then the disaster happened not too long after.
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Speaker 2: Right. So usually like the, so like what, Going back
9:33
Speaker 2: to that story is that a few days before the incident,
9:38
Speaker 2: people kept reporting seeing this figure standing on the bridge.
9:42
Speaker 2: It wasn't standing in the road, in the middle of
9:44
Speaker 2: the bridge. They could see it up on the support beams,
9:48
Speaker 2: like the way bridges are built. They have the actual
9:51
Speaker 2: road that goes over the bridge, but then there's like,
9:54
Speaker 2: these support columns, beams, and, like, in some cases, the
9:58
Speaker 2: bridge may have, like, an outer frame or, like, set of, like,
10:03
Speaker 2: support cables. So, like, at the very top of those
10:07
Speaker 2: support columns, people could see this strange figure. And then
10:13
Speaker 2: not long after the sightings began, the bridge collapsed. It
10:16
Speaker 2: was a huge fiasco because a lot of people died
10:20
Speaker 2: And so it was like 46 deaths and nine injuries,
10:23
Speaker 2: like over like about 31 vehicles plunged into the water.
10:29
Speaker 2: And since then, the Mothman has become like a huge
10:32
Speaker 2: story because now anytime the Mothman is seen, like sightings
10:36
Speaker 2: of the Mothman are reported, it's usually in, it's usually
10:41
Speaker 2: just before some kind of disaster or some other form of,
10:47
Speaker 2: like some other form of tragedy. So if you're in
10:50
Speaker 2: America and you see this figure that looks like a
10:53
Speaker 2: humanoid moth, something bad's probably going to happen. And that's
11:00
Speaker 2: what the Mothman in this book represents, as a warning,
11:03
Speaker 2: as an omen. So the story itself follows the main
11:10
Speaker 2: character named Addie. So Addie, she is a divorced middle-aged woman,
11:16
Speaker 2: early middle-aged woman, And she's on the road traveling to
11:23
Speaker 2: meet some friends up at a convention. And the thing
11:26
Speaker 2: about Addie is that she is recovering from emotional trauma
11:33
Speaker 2: from her divorce because her ex-husband was very controlling. This
11:40
Speaker 2: is a typical case of controlling ex who really broke
11:44
Speaker 2: down that person's individuality really like made them feel worthless,
11:52
Speaker 2: made them feel like they can't do anything right or
11:54
Speaker 2: can't do anything on their own. So like one of
11:56
Speaker 2: the main things that her ex did was like, he
11:59
Speaker 2: was constantly putting her down saying like, yeah, you can't
12:01
Speaker 2: do anything right. You can't do anything by yourself. I
12:03
Speaker 2: have to handle it for you. Like always being the
12:06
Speaker 2: kind of guy that wants to take over and do
12:08
Speaker 2: it himself and do things for her and not actually
12:11
Speaker 2: letting Addie be her own person, make her own mistakes, right?
12:16
Speaker 2: be independent, really like trying to push the whole, like
12:19
Speaker 2: I'm the man, I'm the one who's supposed to do
12:21
Speaker 2: it kind of deal. And so she divorced his ass.
12:25
Speaker 2: And so she's, and she's driving through West Virginia. So
12:29
Speaker 2: of course, this is also Appalachian. This is also an
12:31
Speaker 2: Appalachian horror. And she's trying to forget about her ex-husband,
12:36
Speaker 2: but she keeps, you know, his, he's ingrained himself so
12:39
Speaker 2: much into her life that even like, you know, like some,
12:43
Speaker 2: a lot of people who deal with this kind of
12:45
Speaker 2: trauma are, deal with these kind of with this kind
12:47
Speaker 2: of abuse often will hear the voices of their abuser
12:51
Speaker 2: you know putting them down like it's one of those
12:54
Speaker 2: things where it's just like you know it's just how
12:56
Speaker 2: their trauma manifests itself and it's like it's very common
13:00
Speaker 2: i don't know what it's called exactly there is it's
13:02
Speaker 2: like it's not like uh disassociation or like uh or
13:06
Speaker 2: um schizophrenia but it's just more of like a trauma
13:10
Speaker 2: response where like years of that kind of abuse manifests
13:16
Speaker 2: itself and like you know like triggers memories of like
13:18
Speaker 2: things they would say so like you're doing you're just
13:21
Speaker 2: be doing something and then you just hear they're like
13:23
Speaker 2: if you do something wrong or if you're not you're
13:24
Speaker 2: not sure you're doing something right then like you just
13:27
Speaker 2: hear their voice saying see i told you i told
13:29
Speaker 2: you you were not good enough or like you've always
13:31
Speaker 2: done that so she's dealing with that and she's also
13:35
Speaker 2: a little bit scared because This is in the middle
13:38
Speaker 2: of winter. She's driving through West Virginia and Appalachian Mountains,
13:43
Speaker 2: and it's in the middle of a blizzard. And she's
13:49
Speaker 2: understandably scared and concerned that she might get caught or
13:52
Speaker 2: might end up accidentally driving off the icy roads. So
13:58
Speaker 2: let me see here. I've got a bunch of my
14:02
Speaker 2: notes here. So at one point, she does have to
14:12
Speaker 2: make a pit stop, get some gas, and make sure
14:15
Speaker 2: she's going and get some directions because signal in this
14:19
Speaker 2: area is very spotty because of the blizzard, and she's
14:24
Speaker 2: unable to really use her GPS. So she stops at
14:30
Speaker 2: a truck stop to get some gas, and she meets
14:33
Speaker 2: a trucker named Mads. And the thing about Mads is
14:40
Speaker 2: he just seems like a very friendly guy, trying to
14:44
Speaker 2: be helpful. He tries to strike up a conversation with her,
14:46
Speaker 2: even checks in with her. See, the thing about Mads
14:50
Speaker 2: is that he actually becomes a bit of a pivotal
15:06
Speaker 2: like a pivotal plot point in this story because their
15:09
Speaker 2: interaction goes beyond just the truck stop. Yeah. And so,
15:16
Speaker 2: and it's kind of, how do I explain this? Like
15:19
Speaker 2: she's where she's, Addie's being polite, but she is a
15:23
Speaker 2: little bit wary. She is a little bit wary about
15:26
Speaker 2: him because of her previous experience with her ex and
15:29
Speaker 2: she's vulnerable and she's part of her doesn't want to
15:32
Speaker 2: get caught up with somebody because just because they met
15:34
Speaker 2: on the road. All right. And just because he's being friendly.
15:37
Speaker 2: So the thing is, is that so they realize that
15:42
Speaker 2: the weather is getting much worse. And Matt offers to
15:45
Speaker 2: help her navigate through a dangerous stretch of road. And
15:49
Speaker 2: at first, he's reluctant to do to do that. And. See. Ever,
15:56
Speaker 2: she is reluctant to do that because she hardly knows him.
15:59
Speaker 2: But Mads offers to lend her a spare CV radio
16:05
Speaker 2: that he has, because since the phone lines are not
16:09
Speaker 2: really working, cell lines are not working, CV radio is
16:14
Speaker 2: right now the most effective and reliable method of communication.
16:17
Speaker 2: So she accepts, and he helps her navigate through a
16:21
Speaker 2: stretch of road, because it's basically they're going through a
16:24
Speaker 2: series of switchbacks So you know how, like, when you're
16:28
Speaker 2: going through, if you're familiar with, if you live in
16:31
Speaker 2: a mountainous region, you're familiar with how roads can tend
16:34
Speaker 2: to become very windy. They can become switchbacks, or they can, like, suddenly, like,
16:39
Speaker 2: turn on a dime. Then, you know, it can be
16:42
Speaker 2: very dangerous. So he's talking to her. So he's guiding
16:49
Speaker 2: her through the road. Like, she's actually driving his rig
16:53
Speaker 2: ahead of her car. She's following him along the road. And, uh,
16:58
Speaker 2: thing is, unfortunately, during, uh, unfortunately, once they reach a
17:04
Speaker 2: certain point of the road, uh, they approached, they approached something.
17:09
Speaker 2: They actually approached silver Creek bridge, the very bridge that
17:15
Speaker 2: we were just talking about, uh, origin of the Mothman story. Um,
17:19
Speaker 2: so silver Creek. So just as they are coming, uh,
17:22
Speaker 2: just as they're approaching the bridge, something appears in the
17:29
Speaker 2: middle of the road. When Addie sees it, it looks
17:32
Speaker 2: like a shadowy winged figure with glowing red eyes. And
17:36
Speaker 2: while they don't necessarily call it the Mothman, it's heavily
17:41
Speaker 2: hinted that it is the Mothman. And because both Mads and...
17:52
Speaker 2: Both Mads and... Addie saw the creature, Matt, Matt ends
17:57
Speaker 2: up losing control of his truck and crashes through the
18:00
Speaker 2: guardrail and plunges deep into the ravine. Yeah. Um, so
18:05
Speaker 2: this was a bad accident. Like when you're reading this,
18:08
Speaker 2: like Addie, uh, Addie manages to stop her vehicle and
18:11
Speaker 2: she gets out and looks over the rails and she
18:13
Speaker 2: could see the truck like crashing down, like rolling down
18:18
Speaker 2: the deeper into the ravine until she can no longer
18:21
Speaker 2: see it. Um, And she tries using her CB radio
18:26
Speaker 2: to call him. She can't really, she doesn't hear anything
18:29
Speaker 2: from Mads. But eventually she decides she's going to start,
18:34
Speaker 2: she's going to try to get assistance. She tries using
18:37
Speaker 2: the radio to call for help, but nobody seems to
18:39
Speaker 2: be responding. And then she makes a decision. She's going
18:43
Speaker 2: to go down into the ravine to check to see,
18:46
Speaker 2: just to see if he's alive, if he's okay. And
18:50
Speaker 2: as she's going down into the ravine, she starts hearing
18:55
Speaker 2: his voice over the radio. So she thinks, okay, cool,
18:58
Speaker 2: he's okay, but he probably needs help. And at this point,
19:03
Speaker 2: they're not going to be able to really get any,
19:07
Speaker 2: they're not going to get any help. So she keeps going.
19:13
Speaker 2: And at some point, she feels like there's a presence
19:16
Speaker 2: floating over her. Like it's causing the, like this presence
19:20
Speaker 2: as it floats over her, She notices that all the
19:22
Speaker 2: light from the stars get blotted out. Other ambient light
19:28
Speaker 2: seems to be absorbed by this darkness. And she, of course,
19:34
Speaker 2: understandably becomes fearful until what she feels like this presence
19:40
Speaker 2: flies away and everything seems to go back to normal.
19:43
Speaker 2: But when she's about halfway down into the ravine, um
19:47
Speaker 2: it was like right after this present the presence leaves
19:51
Speaker 2: she notices uh something she notices something reaching out from
19:56
Speaker 2: behind uh from behind some uh fallen tree uh fallen
20:01
Speaker 2: tree trunks and what she saw was this pale hand
20:06
Speaker 2: with four fingers and claws and And it reaches out
20:09
Speaker 2: and grabs her ankle and it nearly pulls her down,
20:12
Speaker 2: but she manages to break free of it. Uh, she
20:17
Speaker 2: manages to break free of it and she, uh, and
20:21
Speaker 2: she managed it and she runs further down into the ravine. Um,
20:25
Speaker 2: the whole time though, like she's like, you know, there's just,
20:28
Speaker 2: there's a lot of psychological, like there's a lot of
20:31
Speaker 2: psycho psychological elements continuously. While continuously trying to fight the elements,
20:38
Speaker 2: trying to get down to help Mads. And then, of course,
20:41
Speaker 2: she runs into something that grabs her leg. And she
20:46
Speaker 2: makes it down into the ravine and she finds a truck.
20:49
Speaker 2: And the truck is in bad shape. The sumbitch is
20:52
Speaker 2: flipped over and part of it had slid into a tunnel.
20:56
Speaker 2: It looked like some kind of abandoned railway tunnel or
21:00
Speaker 2: mining tunnel. She sees a tractor coming out of it
21:04
Speaker 2: and she goes down She goes down further. She's calling
21:09
Speaker 2: out to Mads. Mads is trying to guide her to him.
21:15
Speaker 2: He's talking. And at certain points in their conversations, he
21:19
Speaker 2: mentions that he thinks he can hear something. But he
21:24
Speaker 2: still keeps talking to her. She's trying to keep him
21:28
Speaker 2: talking in case he's hurt because he says that he's pinned.
21:31
Speaker 2: He can't get out. And she reaches the front of
21:34
Speaker 2: the rig, which the very front of the rig, the engine,
21:37
Speaker 2: had slid into the tunnel. And when she sees it,
21:41
Speaker 2: she sees it flipped over. And she also sees what
21:44
Speaker 2: she thinks is Mads. She sees Mads' arm sticking out
21:47
Speaker 2: of the window. And it's waving. And it's waving at her.
21:52
Speaker 2: And as she gets closer, she notices Mads has gone
21:55
Speaker 2: completely silent. And she keeps calling out to him and
22:00
Speaker 2: she gets closer to his arm and she sees it
22:02
Speaker 2: still waving until at one point it's pulled back into the,
22:06
Speaker 2: like he pulls it back in to the rig. So
22:10
Speaker 2: she gets in, she tries opening the door, one of
22:13
Speaker 2: the doors, but it's completely like trashed. So she has
22:16
Speaker 2: to go around and manages to open the door on
22:19
Speaker 2: the opposite side. When she gets in, it's very dark
22:22
Speaker 2: and she manages to use what little light she has
22:24
Speaker 2: from her phone like her cell phone's light to illuminate the,
22:28
Speaker 2: to illuminate the cabin. And she sees Mads and Mads
22:33
Speaker 2: is dead. Well, we're talking like we're, we're talking like
22:40
Speaker 2: he is like, he is a corpse, not just Reese.
22:44
Speaker 2: And he's not recently dead either. Like, he's been dead
22:48
Speaker 2: this entire... She realizes that he's been dead this entire time. Because, one,
22:53
Speaker 2: when she tries to pull him out of his seat,
22:55
Speaker 2: because he's stuck in his seat. Like, he's upside down,
22:57
Speaker 2: and he's stuck in his seat. Yeah. And there's blood
23:02
Speaker 2: pouring out of him. Like, his body had been eviscerated.
23:05
Speaker 2: There's blood pulled in the roof of the cabin. His
23:11
Speaker 2: arms are limp and already, like, gone ice cold. Mm-hmm.
23:17
Speaker 2: And she like, she's freaking out, understandably freaking out. Like
23:21
Speaker 2: he's dead. Then how come he's been, but he was
23:24
Speaker 2: talking to her this whole time, but feeling his skin
23:27
Speaker 2: he's ice cold and he's already, and it seems, and
23:30
Speaker 2: because of the cold, it seems like rigor is already
23:32
Speaker 2: beginning to set in and the, and the blood that's
23:35
Speaker 2: pulled around her feet is already starting to freeze is
23:37
Speaker 2: already like ice cold and beginning to freeze and congeal.
23:42
Speaker 2: But wait, she's, she's faced to herself. Why was he moving?
23:46
Speaker 2: his arm was waving at her. And that's when she
23:50
Speaker 2: sees his body jerk more. And when she looks up,
23:53
Speaker 2: she sees a pale white figure. This creature had the
24:02
Speaker 2: same kind of hand that reached out and grabbed her
24:04
Speaker 2: in the forest. Four clawed fingers, this wide... mouth filled
24:13
Speaker 2: with sharp teeth and small like pinched eyes i say
24:16
Speaker 2: that because it's like it's it's she realizes that this
24:19
Speaker 2: thing must be blind and it's over here go uh
24:23
Speaker 2: chowing down on his body like it's it's clinging to
24:26
Speaker 2: it's clinging to the uh to um the floor of
24:29
Speaker 2: the of the cabin because the cabin is upside down
24:31
Speaker 2: so it's like it's hanging from the top of the
24:33
Speaker 2: cabin and it's just like it keeps going it's just
24:38
Speaker 2: like munching down. So that's what causing Matt's arm to
24:43
Speaker 2: wave around because as it was chowing down on him,
24:47
Speaker 2: it was causing his body to like move. So Addie
24:54
Speaker 2: freaks out And like she acquired, she manages to quietly
24:59
Speaker 2: get out of the cabin and she immediately tries to
25:02
Speaker 2: run out of the tunnel. But when she goes back
25:05
Speaker 2: to the end of the tunnel to, uh, goes back,
25:07
Speaker 2: she has to follow the rig back out. But when
25:10
Speaker 2: she follows it, she's met with a wall of stone. Oh,
25:14
Speaker 2: the tunnel had been completely closed up around her. So
25:21
Speaker 2: you're in danger, girl. Oh yeah, wee-woo. Wee-woo. Wee-woo. Wee-woo. Somehow,
25:38
Speaker 2: the tunnel had closed itself up. And the way it
25:42
Speaker 2: closed is that it formed itself perfectly around the rig.
25:45
Speaker 2: So while the tail end of the rig is still
25:48
Speaker 2: sticking out of the tunnel, the wall has just completely
25:52
Speaker 2: encapsulated it. So she can't get out.
25:57
Speaker 3: That's nice.
26:01
Speaker 2: She tries the CB radio again. She changes it to
26:04
Speaker 2: different channels, and she eventually does reach somebody. And this man,
26:08
Speaker 2: as it turns out, as far as she can tell,
26:11
Speaker 2: works with Mads. He either works at the same company
26:14
Speaker 2: as Mads, or he's just another truck driver. So he's
26:24
Speaker 2: talking to her. He's talking, trying to reach Mads. She
26:27
Speaker 2: tells him that Mads was in an accident, and... The
26:30
Speaker 2: rig is trashed. He's dead. And he tells her, okay,
26:33
Speaker 2: help's on the way. And he asks her, where is she?
26:38
Speaker 2: And she doesn't really know where she is because she
26:39
Speaker 2: didn't realize that they were at the Silver Creek Bridge.
26:42
Speaker 2: She thought they were on a completely different route. And
26:47
Speaker 2: that's when he tells her, well, the Mads was supposed
26:50
Speaker 2: to be taking this route. Was that what, was that
26:52
Speaker 2: the route he was taking you through? And she said,
26:54
Speaker 2: I don't know. But as like, he's revealing like what
26:57
Speaker 2: possibly what route they could be on, like helping her
27:00
Speaker 2: narrow it down. She realizes that she is actually off
27:03
Speaker 2: her course. Like somehow along the way, the direction they
27:10
Speaker 2: were going, the direction they were going was actually the wrong,
27:13
Speaker 2: was not the way that she was supposed to be going.
27:16
Speaker 2: Like eventually it'll take her to where she needs to go,
27:18
Speaker 2: but it was basically, this stupid way like no one
27:22
Speaker 2: goes this way especially during a like during a blizzard
27:25
Speaker 2: like this so she's like so now she's wondering like
27:30
Speaker 2: was she starts to wonder like there's more of that
27:33
Speaker 2: psychological uh like unsettleness like she's realizing that was mad's
27:39
Speaker 2: intentions really like was he really trying to help her
27:45
Speaker 2: was he really trying to help her get through this
27:47
Speaker 2: uh through the storm or was he trying to lead
27:49
Speaker 2: her somewhere And so, unfortunately, she is forced to go
27:56
Speaker 2: deeper into the tunnel because the original only way out
28:02
Speaker 2: is now completely blocked off and she can't get through.
28:06
Speaker 2: So she starts going deeper into the tunnel. It's dark
28:10
Speaker 2: and she has to feel her way through. At one point,
28:14
Speaker 2: as she's going through the tunnel, she does run into
28:16
Speaker 2: the creature again. Not the one that was chowing down
28:19
Speaker 2: on Mads, but the Mothman. She sees its bright red eyes,
28:24
Speaker 2: and it actually speaks to her. She's scared of it.
28:30
Speaker 2: She wants, like, why is it trying to hurt her?
28:36
Speaker 2: And it's like, I'm not. I'm trying to say like,
28:42
Speaker 2: it's basically like, I forgot exactly like what it was
28:45
Speaker 2: telling her, but it was basically like challenging her ID.
28:48
Speaker 2: It kept challenging her idea of what was real. Like, okay.
28:52
Speaker 2: Like you think that like, like I'm just a messenger.
28:55
Speaker 2: You think that you're like, well, why did you, why
28:59
Speaker 2: did you cause the accident? I'm like, I didn't cause
29:01
Speaker 2: the accident. I was just, I was just a warning. Well,
29:12
Speaker 2: But then why were you chasing me down the ravine?
29:14
Speaker 2: That's not what I was doing at all. I was
29:16
Speaker 2: trying to warn you, too. And right after she sensed
29:20
Speaker 2: its presence on the ravine, going down the ravine, that's
29:23
Speaker 2: when that other creature grabbed her. And then again, she
29:26
Speaker 2: saw it again just before going into the tunnel. So
29:31
Speaker 2: she's realizing that she's trying to figure out if the
29:35
Speaker 2: Mothman was part of the same phenomenon. Like, was it
29:39
Speaker 2: with these creatures that were, that started eating mads and
29:42
Speaker 2: had attacked her in the ravine or was it trying
29:45
Speaker 2: to warn her? But she not knowing what to do,
29:48
Speaker 2: she kept going. She like, she ignores it and goes
29:52
Speaker 2: and keeps going forward. And she reaches a point in the,
29:54
Speaker 2: in the tunnel where there's a big deep lake. Well,
29:59
Speaker 2: it's not really deep. It's just like a wide, like
30:01
Speaker 2: a small lake in the middle of, like in the underground.
30:04
Speaker 2: And she's forced to go through it. And as she's
30:07
Speaker 2: going through it, she sees dozens of the pale creatures
30:13
Speaker 2: that attacked Mads. And they begin to try to attack her.
30:16
Speaker 2: She manages to avoid them and goes deeper into the
30:18
Speaker 2: tunnels before eventually finding an exit. And the exit takes
30:21
Speaker 2: her out not that far from where her car was.
30:25
Speaker 2: She has to climb up the ravine. And when she
30:26
Speaker 2: gets back on the road, she follows it down and
30:28
Speaker 2: she sees the flares that she had set up for
30:30
Speaker 2: her car. And thankfully. So thankfully, somebody had reported had
30:39
Speaker 2: reported to the highway patrol and a highway patrol officer
30:43
Speaker 2: and managed to find her car. Um, so when she
30:46
Speaker 2: got there, she finds him and she, and so far
30:48
Speaker 2: had made it to relative safety. So I want to
30:51
Speaker 2: kind of step back a bit because while she was, uh,
30:55
Speaker 2: trying to make it through the, uh, trying to make
30:57
Speaker 2: it through the tunnels, she actually, she was speaking to
30:59
Speaker 2: that other guy, um, that had new, had known Mads.
31:03
Speaker 2: And while she's talking to him and he keeps trying
31:06
Speaker 2: to get like her location and her description, she realizes something.
31:09
Speaker 2: This guy's like asking too many pointed questions and he
31:13
Speaker 2: kind of lets slip that. there was a specific type
31:17
Speaker 2: of job that Mads was supposed to be performing. And
31:21
Speaker 2: at one point she did, she did end up going
31:25
Speaker 2: into the ravine. She did end up going into the rig,
31:27
Speaker 2: into the trailer of the rig. And she sees some strange,
31:30
Speaker 2: like she sees bodies, pale bodies all lined up and
31:35
Speaker 2: stored neatly in the rig. So Mads, she doesn't know
31:39
Speaker 2: what exactly this is for. And the bodies looked grotesque,
31:43
Speaker 2: not like the pale creatures that she encountered, but there's
31:45
Speaker 2: something off about these bodies. And she realizes that she
31:50
Speaker 2: may have stumbled into something. And when, and when the
31:53
Speaker 2: guy that she's speaking to over the radio, when she's
31:58
Speaker 2: speaking to the guy over the radio, she realizes that
32:01
Speaker 2: this guy knows, like knows something about the rig too.
32:05
Speaker 2: and even make some veiled threats about what she might
32:08
Speaker 2: know about the rig. So she stops talking to the guy,
32:11
Speaker 2: and when she makes it back to the road, the
32:13
Speaker 2: highway patrolman finds her and helps take her back to civilization.
32:19
Speaker 2: And she tells him everything that happened, and she even
32:23
Speaker 2: tells him about the creatures that she saw. But the
32:26
Speaker 2: thing is, is that this is also like, it's kind
32:30
Speaker 2: of pointing out how oftentimes women especially they're often not
32:37
Speaker 2: taken seriously in these kind of situations. So they keep
32:42
Speaker 2: brushing off her concerns. She tells them what she had
32:45
Speaker 2: seen and what she had seen in the rig and
32:47
Speaker 2: that possibly this may have been some part... This may
32:50
Speaker 2: have been some kind of human trafficking scheme. Yeah. Because Mads,
32:56
Speaker 2: as she puts two and two together and she highly
32:59
Speaker 2: suspects that Mads was trying to lead her to... into
33:05
Speaker 2: some kind of trap. And once the trap is sprung,
33:08
Speaker 2: she would have been kidnapped and trafficked. And, you know,
33:15
Speaker 2: she shares her concerns, especially, and she even describes what
33:18
Speaker 2: she saw in the Riggs trailer, and even, like, the creatures. Now,
33:23
Speaker 2: of course, the officer, the police don't really believe her
33:26
Speaker 2: about the creatures, but the whole human trafficking stuff, they
33:29
Speaker 2: keep basically just brushing her off, like, wow. No way
33:34
Speaker 2: that's it. No. And then somehow, after running her information,
33:40
Speaker 2: it turns out she hadn't really updated her emergency contacts.
33:44
Speaker 2: So her ex-husband is still listed as an emergency contact.
33:48
Speaker 2: And they're being very condescending and patronizing with her. Like, okay, well,
33:54
Speaker 2: we appreciate everything you told us, but we went ahead
33:58
Speaker 2: and we got in touch with your emergency contact and
34:01
Speaker 2: he's going to come and pick you up. like you
34:03
Speaker 2: know being very like like sickly sweet like oh okay
34:06
Speaker 2: well you know what we understand he'd been through an
34:09
Speaker 2: ordeal but that's totally fine but we went ahead and
34:13
Speaker 2: called your emergency contact and he's gonna come pick you
34:15
Speaker 2: up and she's like my emergency contact who uh his
34:20
Speaker 2: name is brian and she was like oh hell no
34:22
Speaker 2: like my ex-husband oh hell no so well so She
34:26
Speaker 2: doesn't really say anything. So she's like, oh, like, why
34:29
Speaker 2: would they do that? Like, he's my ex. And she's like,
34:32
Speaker 2: and they're like, well, he's agreed to come take responsibility
34:34
Speaker 2: for you, like, and come pick you up. The way
34:36
Speaker 2: they said that was like very like, oh, well, like,
34:38
Speaker 2: you know, like we called your parents. I think the
34:42
Speaker 2: fuck not. Yeah. And so she's also like, I think
34:47
Speaker 2: the fuck not. So when the when as soon as
34:49
Speaker 2: like the officers, as soon as the officers like walk
34:53
Speaker 2: away and thinking like the matter is settled, she just
34:55
Speaker 2: gets up and walks out. She should. Deciding she's going to, like,
35:01
Speaker 2: she's not going to allow her ex to come back
35:03
Speaker 2: into her life and take control of her again. She
35:07
Speaker 2: just decides, she just decides, you know, like, no, I'm out.
35:13
Speaker 2: And she walks out. At that point, this is where
35:16
Speaker 2: the story ends. She does see the Mothman one more time.
35:19
Speaker 2: And basically, like, its presence now isn't, like, showing up
35:24
Speaker 2: as a warning, but more of, like, you know, kind
35:26
Speaker 2: of like a, like a confirmation, like, yep, you're going
35:29
Speaker 2: in the right direction. Yeah.
35:35
Speaker 3: Love that.
35:36
Speaker 2: Love that. Yeah. So she decided, you know, I'd rather
35:45
Speaker 2: just be out there in the cold, making, choosing my
35:49
Speaker 2: own direction, going about my own way instead of like
35:52
Speaker 2: waiting for, waiting for a.
35:54
Speaker 3: Man to, man yeah how dare a man tell me
36:01
Speaker 3: what to.
36:02
Speaker 2: Do with my life yeah so that is where the
36:07
Speaker 2: story ends like as she's walking away from the police
36:09
Speaker 2: station she does feel it's the she does feel the
36:14
Speaker 2: mothman's presence behind her but she doesn't turn around she
36:17
Speaker 2: just keeps going and that's the end of the book
36:22
Speaker 2: it's a very short read You could probably finish this
36:25
Speaker 2: in a day if you really put your mind to it.
36:30
Speaker 2: It took me a few days to about a week
36:32
Speaker 2: to finish it, but that's mainly because I work, and
36:35
Speaker 2: sometimes I don't have time to read during the day.
36:37
Speaker 2: I'm kind of behind on my reading right now, honestly.
36:43
Speaker 2: So that was Below by Laurel Hightower. This was definitely
36:47
Speaker 2: an interesting read. I wanted to read something a little
36:50
Speaker 2: bit spooky for Halloween, so this was one of my
36:53
Speaker 2: spookity reads. And yeah, that is it. Of course, like
37:00
Speaker 2: I didn't go into full detail. There is a lot
37:02
Speaker 2: more that happens in the book, even though it's very short.
37:04
Speaker 2: There's a lot of elements that I couldn't really go
37:06
Speaker 2: over because they're just like it's just a rabbit. It's
37:09
Speaker 2: just a rabbit hole within a rabbit hole. Yeah. Because
37:12
Speaker 2: there's because there are some answers that don't get answered.
37:15
Speaker 2: There's some questions that don't get answered. And, you know,
37:19
Speaker 2: there's still like a lot of mystery, like what exactly
37:21
Speaker 2: are these creatures that she encounters in the ravine? My,
37:25
Speaker 2: my guess would be like some kind of Wendigo, like
37:28
Speaker 2: Wendigo or some other kind of cryptid. And the Mothman really,
37:33
Speaker 2: its entire, its presence throughout the entire story was never
37:37
Speaker 2: meant to antagonize her, but rather to warn her. It's more,
37:42
Speaker 2: it represents more of an omen than anything else, like
37:44
Speaker 2: an omen of, doom or a danger and the reason
37:48
Speaker 2: why it kept appearing before her like it appeared before
37:51
Speaker 2: her at the truck stop just before the accident going
37:54
Speaker 2: down to the ravine inside the tunnels itself and even
37:57
Speaker 2: after she leaves yeah because and it's not harming her
38:01
Speaker 2: it even speaks to her even like challenges her like
38:04
Speaker 2: where do you think like like are you sure do
38:07
Speaker 2: you honestly think you're going the right you're walking down
38:09
Speaker 2: the safe the right path and it seems almost alien
38:14
Speaker 2: to her But, yep, that is below. It's an interesting story.
38:21
Speaker 2: I didn't know it is. I think I've been spoiled
38:26
Speaker 2: by how Hollywood tends to take these kind of cryptids
38:29
Speaker 2: and turn them into these gory man-killers.
38:34
Speaker 1: Yeah. Right.
38:34
Speaker 2: So it was part of me that I was expecting
38:36
Speaker 2: the Mothman to have more of a like monstrous role
38:39
Speaker 2: in the story where it's like actually attacking and hurting people.
38:43
Speaker 2: But it didn't. It followed the it followed the original
38:46
Speaker 2: folklore where it's not actually hurting people, but rather it
38:50
Speaker 2: just appears before disasters. Yeah.
38:54
Speaker 3: It's an omen.
38:55
Speaker 2: So it's an omen. Oh, man.
38:58
Speaker 1: Dork.
39:04
Speaker 3: But there you go, guys, as today's episode on below.
39:08
Speaker 2: Peace out. Bye. Bye.