Brittany sat at her
computer, still fiddling with the damaged footage from Max’s camera. She could hear Rico shuffling around behind
her, working on the monitors for the security cameras.
“Do they have any footage
from those missing kids?” Brittany
glanced over her shoulder.
“I think the cops took
it. Not like there was much to see anyways. Cameras all cut out.” Rico leaned against the bank of monitors, and
it was obvious to Brittany that he was trying to look calm.
She was calm, at least
she thought she was. Part of her did
wonder what Rico thought of the night before, or what he thought it meant. For her it was an experiment, or at least, an
experience. Physical intimacy was
something unknown to her, at least, in human form. Still, for Rico, it could have meant
something completely different.
An awkward silence fell
over the room.
“So,” Brittany finally
spoke up, “why aren’t there any cops here now?
I mean, you would think they
would still be investigating.”
Best took keep the
subject on work, she thought to herself.
“They were here. Looked over the whole park.” He nodded back at the monitors. “The place isn’t that big, so it didn’t take
them very long. Trust me, I was as
surprised as anyone that we got permission to shoot her so soon after.”
“They were probably
hoping that you guys would do their job for them.” Brittany smirked. Fantasy Land was out in the boonies, and the
nearest town was one of those one stoplight kind of deals.
She had done her research
before coming up here. Lilac Hills,
Illinois, population just over three hundred.
The town still had a general store that worked as a post office, and
only a sheriff and two deputies. The town was so small it didn’t even have it’s
own Wikipedia entry. The only reason it
got any mention online was because of Fantasy Land, and whatever fame the park
had brought to the place was long gone.
Brittany stood up,
stretching. “You sure the cops got all
the footage?”
Rico shrugged. “We could check. I doubt we could use anything if we found
it.”
“Doesn’t hurt to look
though, does it?” She gave him a sly
smile.
They both sat down at the
bank of monitors, and started their search.
They pulled up the night of the disappearance, and began to fast forward
through the footage. There was mostly
nothing, just the empty fairway, and closed rides. Not even a security guard passed by the
cameras. At times the images on the
screens flickered, blanking out for a few seconds, and then they would pop back
on, revealing nothing out of the ordinary.
“You see anything?” Rico
glanced at Brittany, and up this close she could see that his eyes were
starting to get bloodshot and tired.
Before she could answer
she saw something move on the screen.
“Wait, rewind that. Play it back,
but slow it down.”
As the footage replayed
Brittany squinted to make out the form moving across the screen. The video was grainy and pixilated, but it
was obvious that something was running across the fairway. Rico hit pause.
“I think I could clean
this up.” Brittany walked back over to
her computer and grabbed a flash drive.
“Can you get a screen grab?”
Rico nodded.
A few minutes later,
Brittany was at work trying to clean up the image. One of the perks of always being stuck in the
office was filling your time. A few of
their cases had required some video clean up, and she had learned the software
to help save them all a little money and time.
It didn’t take her long before she was able to remove some of the
digital noise from the image.
“Holy shit.” Her eyes
went wide. “Is that…”
Rico nodded, his face
suddenly pale. “It’s the fricken mascot
running across the fairway.”
Brittany grabbed her
cellphone. No signal. Of course there was no signal. In places like this, during times like this,
there was never a signal.
Her and Rico stood there,
silent. She had seen one of those things
in the lake. She had experienced, first
hand, what they were capable of. Now
Rico was seeing it too. He had to realize
that something was very wrong in that park.
Brittany felt her breath
catch in her throat. She could hear the
squealing of door hinges. Both her and Rico turned, looking towards the now
cracked open door. She could see
something standing there, hidden in shadows; it’s glassy, fabricated eyes
watching her. Ujin was watching
her.
Rico was the one to move
first. He rushed towards the door,
slamming it shut.
“What the fuck was
that?” He pressed his back against the
door.
As if to answer him, the
sound of high pitched giggling came from behind him. Then the door started to shake, as if
whatever was on the other side was throwing itself at the door, trying to get
in.
Brittany rushed to his
side, putting her full weight against the door.
Even though Ujin appeared small, he was surprisingly strong.
Then, almost as soon as
it started, it ended.
“Guess we know what got
to those two college kids.” Brittany
glanced at Rico.
Rico was too terrified to
answer her.
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