SUMMARY: Waitress Hope takes an interest in Neil, a distracted young man who has stopped at the roadside coffee shop where she works. He's not sure whether he's in Tennessee (he is), and says he's on a trip across the country visiting roadside attractions, on the theory that since America is such a young country, those are the places of wonder - the closest we've got to Old Gods. It soon transpires that strange things have been happening to him. Music stops playing whenever he's around - the radio in the coffee shop has been blaring static since he walked in. He's been finding himself with hitchhikers in his car each day that he doesn't remember picking up, and then he wakes up the next morning in a motel he doesn't remember checking into, in a completely different state than he was in yesterday. When Hope goes to check the radio, she is suddenly possessed by somebody else, who warns Neil to run. Hope then snaps out of it with no memory of what just happened, and a spooked Neil pays up and leaves in a hurry...

Photos by Mandi Moss

SUMMARY: Neil, while driving down the highway, stops to pick up Avsof, a hitchhiker - an odd woman who warns him that he is being followed by the Dark Man, and that if he seeks gods, he must be prepared to encounter demons. She then gives him a book... and has him drop her off in the middle of nowhere. Neil continues on to visit a giant ball of twine. The tour guide is a sweet young woman whose late father got the ball started, both literally and metaphorically - the townsfolk now add to the ball on a regular basis as its size and legend grows. Like Hope before her, she is briefly possessed and issues Neil a warning.

SUMMARY: Neil comes to with another hitchhiker in the car... a creepy woman who knows about a woman in Neil's past, a woman who is long gone thanks to actions not taken. The hitchhiker reveals herself to be Regret. Later, Neil stops to see the roadside attraction "The Thing," where, after the tour guide refuses to tell him anything about the attraction, Neil learns that some things simply need to be experienced.