Haydrian looked out the window of his rented Sedan. Wow. This was some ugly countryside. Well in his opinion anyway. Farmland had just never done it for him, and it was all he’d seen since they hit Illinois. He sighed. This trip had better be worth it. If these people were just wasting his time… It didn’t bear thinking about. He was honestly surprised he’d actually been able to locate this Brightwell place at all; it wasn’t on any maps he’d been able to find. He’d finally located it thanks to an old Native American friend of his. Apparently, it was quite famous for it’s Burial Grounds. Haydrian grinned from within the depths of his shadowy hood. He’d have to give them a visit.

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After his group entered town Haydrian decided to find a gas station before looking in earnest for these people he was supposed to meet. He had to say it wasn’t very professional of them to demand he go to this backwater town and not give him a specific building to meet at. Then again considering the difficulty he’d had finding the town; it was entirely possible that adding the hunt for a random building to the list would have made the task impossible. But he doubted it. This small town barely had enough buildings in it to keep it from blowing off the face of the earth. After all it had already blown off the face of the maps.[i] Speaking of maps[/i], Haydrian thought to himself,[i] after we fuel up, I think I’ll go see if the cashier has one of this town. Just in case.[/i] 

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Haydrian couldn’t believe it. They’d had a map. He’d had to pay with cash (which in this day and age really said something about a place), but they had in fact had a map. He leaned against his Sedan, still parked in the gas station, and opened up the map. He let his eyes just drift across it a few times, soaking in just how small this place really was. Then in the corner of his mind, something like an itch started up. He was actually genuinely irritated by this. An itch in his brain? GREAT. The itch strangely began working its way from the back of his skull… through the middle of his brain? That’s the only way he could think to describe what was happening anyway. The itch continued its journey until it reached the back of his eye socket, at which point something truly disturbing happened.

 Haydrian felt something that honestly felt like his eyes were being moved for him. One moment he was staring blankly at the map, and the next his eyes were dragged to stare intently at on area on the map. Creeped out, but not one to freak out, Haydrian inspected the area on the map, noticing that as long as he didn’t look away, the itch had disappeared, though if he did, it came back and his eyes were dragged right back. Was this magic? Haydrian contemplated. The neighborhood was nondescript, and a small motel was labeled. In fact, the motel. Yeah, that felt right for sure. This must be how his intended companions planned to lead him to the meeting place. Not bad he had to say, though he still would have put it in the note. Ah well, time to get a move on. He stood up straight and stretched his long arms, cracking his back as he did so. He looked over his shoulder with a careless air and spoke to his companions in the Sedan. 
“Alright I think I’ve found it. Have Dennis go first and check it out please.” 

There was some grunting from within the Sedan, Haydrian imagined they were struggling to use smartphones again. He cursed. He really needed to figure out how to increase their dexterity. 

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[b]Dennis[/b]

[img]https://www.laweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/fright-night.jpg[/img]

Cold hands. Cold skin. So cold. Dennis felt the urge to shiver. He always felt the urge to shiver, but his body no longer seemed capable of shivering. It made him want to cry, and even though he’d seen others like him cry he hadn’t been able to do it himself. He heard it made everything more bearable. He whished he could cry. And not being able to cry made him wish he could die. The dark nature of the thought made him want to shiver, starting the cycle again. He began cursing under his breath, tapping his cold dead thumb on the steering wheel of the Sedan he was in. He’d never let anyone else know he was dis-satisfied of course. Being an Un-living was a great blessing and honor. He’d asked for it after all, before he knew how… unnatural it would feel. He was terrified of Haydrian finding out he was displeased with the gift. Maybe Haydrian was supposed to be a good man, but Dennis had never been in his inner circle and unlike the seemingly brainwashed puppets, he had suspicions about the man. 

Just then his phone rang, and Dennis nearly jumped out of his skin. He was to tense; this stress was going to kill... Right. Already technically dead. he felt the thought like a sledgehammer to his already raw nerves. He did his best to stop thinking about it, and began gritting his teeth. He picked up his phone, trying to keep his voice calm.

“Hello?”

“Dennis,” A raspy voice said over the phone, “Haydrian found the place, he wants you to go in his stead at first, confirm these people aren’t dangerous.”

Dennis nodded, logical and very characteristic of Haydrian. Plus, it made sense to send Dennis, his corpse body was the most believably living of the bunch that had come with Haydrian. “Alright, where is it?” He almost left it at that but then he asked, "Wait am I supposed to impersonate Haydrian to these people? When am I to contact you next? I know what to watch for, Haydrian made his worries concerning these people clear, but at what point to I disengage if they turn out to be crackpots?" Dennis' voice was rising in pitch and intensity. He realized the thumb that had been tapping the wheel was now faster and faster, his grip so tight the rubber on the wheel had begun to rip. He panicked, he'd lost his cool they were going to get suspicious!

"Geez calm down Dennis, I'm sorry alright?" The raspy voice said apologetically, "I forgot to ask the boss, you don't gotta rip into me like that."

Dennis breathed a sigh of relief. Right. Why wouldn't they think he was upset about being given such a vague mission?

Dennis cleared his throat, "Right, sorry didn't mean to rip into you like that..." He paused, what should he say now? "Ah, It's just, you know, I get a bit hot blooded and.."

"Chill man, I'll go ask, you really gotta work on that temper. Ever think of going to thereapy for it before?"

Dennis chuckled. A corpse going to therapy for anger management issues. There had to be irony in that somewhere.

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Dennis stepped out of the Sedan. Wow. Shoddy place. He looked around for a bit. No tall building nearby, and not too many vehicles yet. There was an old junker car that had pulled up just a moment ago, and Dennis couldn’t believe it hadn’t just fallen apart the moment it stopped. A tall man in a trench coat had stepped out. Dennis wasn’t sure why, but he thought he recognized him. Maybe he’d seen him on the news?

Dennis took a stroll around the Motel. There were only two real entrances to the place. The front and back door. It looked safe enough, though he got the strangest feeling. Every time he looked away from the place it was almost as if… as if the building tried to disappear. Dennis was no spook but one time he thought it actually did, at least when he looked back, he thought for a moment that he couldn’t see it. Either way he got the definite feeling the place was out of business. Not that it mattered, condemned buildings were common meeting grounds. Still the disappearing act bugged him. Maybe it had to do with all of this magic stuff. Dennis shook his head and walked back to the front door. Time to make an entrance.

Dennis quietly opened the front door of the Garfield Motel. An elderly woman looked at him, confused. Dennis waved and just acted like he was supposed to be here. He held up the note that had been sent to Haydrian for the old man to see. The woman squinted suspiciously and then shrugged, pointing towards a door before settling back into her newspaper. Dennis nodded a thanks, and walked to the door.

 Opening it he found three individuals. One was a blonde youthful looking man, who seemed like he’d be more at home in Neverland. There was the familiar looking man from earlier as well. He looked a bit wrinkled, as if he’d slept in his clothes for the past few days. Then there was the girl. She very simply scared Dennis. She had a head of short reddish-brown hair, and brown eyes deep and dark enough to drown in. Dennis suddenly had an image in his mind of her attempting to drown a devil in a pond so she could keep his pitchfork. He knew someone with an agenda when he saw them, and this lady was dangerous. She looked as though she’d just finished yelling at the young blonde man when Dennis stepped in. Dennis locked eyes with the young man.

“Gavin’s your name?” Dennis said in a cheery voice, “So you sent the message? Well I’m glad to finally meet you. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I should come, your message sounded a bit… well crazy.” Dennis stepped around and in front of the woman, ignoring her generally. He reached out a hand to shake Gavin’s. He continued, “Not to be rude, but who exactly are you and why did you ask me to come here?”

The rumpled man spoke up. Dennis looked over his shoulder and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well yes he knows me, he sent me this note after all." Dennis turned back to Gavin and cocked his head, "From the way these two are acting I get the feeling they may be in the same boat as me. So it's really just you? I mean, your not acting as part of a group, or on orders or something?"