Crystal Web

Strange events--stranger than usual--begin to happen around town, odd accidents and frightening encounters. The chief of police comes to Conjure Ink to ask us to investigate. As we delve deeper into what's going on, we find evidence that Moonshadow Bay is being visited by the infamous Mothman. And worse than that, he seems to have targeted my best friend Ari. Can we stop him before something terrible happens, and before Ari ends up dead?
"Yes, I’m sure. Go stroll around the yard or talk to Ari. You both
complain about never getting enough time to hang out anymore.” Teran
turned back to the table and motioned for Ari to join me.
As Ari and I descended the steps to the backyard, I inhaled a deep
breath of warm air. We were having our annual May heat wave that usually
lasted about a week. Then it was back to rain and cool weather until
summer truly hit. The real heat came in late July and August. Western
Washington had its own brand of weather, and for the most part, we were a
lovely, temperate spot among the encroaching climate change that was
working its way through the world. Oh, we were being hit too, but not
nearly as bad as some areas.
“I’m glad to see the sun for a change,” Ari said. She’d been my best friend since childhood. We grew up together. Then, when I got married, we almost lost touch thanks to my asshole ex, but now I was divorced, back in Moonshadow Bay, and we were best buds again. “It feels like it’s been a long, harsh winter.” “That’s because it has,” I said. “I’m so tired of dealing with ghosts. At least I have Bigfoot to look forward to.” Tad Gelphart, the twenty-something owner of Conjure Ink, the paranormal investigations organization and website that I worked for, had approved our plans to go camping on the slopes of Mount Baker in July. We were on a mission to find Bigfoot. I was looking forward to it, in a perverse sort of way. Even sasquatch would be a welcome relief from the hauntings that I had dealt with over the past few months. Angry ghosts could be such a bitch. Ari and I wandered over to the edge of the Mystic Wood. A magical forest that surrounded most of Moonshadow Bay, which was ten miles south of Bellingham, WA, the woodland was filled with various denizens who were far from human. The forest was a glittering and deadly copse, and few people entered it willingly. But Ari and I had played in it since childhood, and the Mystic Wood was rooted as deep in my heart as much as every other part of Moonshadow Bay. This town was part of my blood. Literally, since my great-grandmother and great-grandfather had founded it in 1905."