Chapter 6

“Where’s your laptop charger?” Miriam yelled, hopefully loud enough to be heard over the hum of the hair dryer in the bathroom.

Macy stopped the dryer and stepped out in only a towel, her hair frizzier than straight. Miriam would have just put hers up in a ponytail, but Macy tamed her hair down every time she left the house — or hotel room, in this case. Tonight, Macy planned to hit the clubs even though she was almost two years shy of twenty-one. To Miriam, that didn’t seem worth the risk.

Bottom pocket? Miriam turned the backpack over and found a zipper running along the bottom. Huh. A bottom pocket. Macy squatted beside Miriam and undid the zipper, pulling out the long white cable that went with the laptop.

“There ya go,” Macy offered before coming all the way down to sit next to Miriam on the floor. “You sure you don’t want to come out tonight?”

Miriam nodded. “I’m sure. I just really want to figure out this Joe Hampton thing. But you and Tanner should go have fun.”

Miriam said the last bit with a little bit of reservation, even if she felt it was the most appropriate thing to say. The two of them needed some time alone, and Miriam didn’t want to be a third wheel in case tonight was the night the two of them paired off. Macy insisted that she intended to meet new boys. Surely, though, that would be difficult with Tanner playing wingman.

Macy sighed, putting a hand on Miriam’s shoulder. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

Macy laughed, jumped back to her feet and continued taming her hair. Oftentimes she felt like the sister Miriam never had, and Miriam surmised that her friendly duty was to act like seeing her walking around in a towel was no big deal, even though it felt like a big deal.

The hair dryer whooshed back on. Miriam plugged the laptop in and got it situated on the tiny desk in the corner of the room. Macy had carted her computer all the way from Dobie without turning it off, leaving it completely drained. Miriam found that to be irresponsible, but then she was starting to learn that she could be a bit of a stick in the mud, and that bothered her, so she tried to keep it cool. It proved a very challenging goal.

The laptop booted up to the password screen, ready for her input, which she keyed in quickly. Back at school, Miriam only had a desktop, so Macy frequently let her use the laptop. A child of divorce, Macy seemed to have two parents fighting to take care of her college expenses, while Miriam had barely scraped by on scholarships and work-study programs. Miriam’s father had taken her laptop back after the falling out. Petty, sure, but not entirely unexpected.

Miriam minimized all Macy’s homework; lines upon lines of computer code that Miriam didn’t understand at all, but she admired this nerdier side of Macy.

With her view unfettered, Miriam scanned down the launch bar until she found the browser, then launched into her search. Cape Madre hid a secret from her, and she intended to bring the power of the Internet to bear on uncovering it. Her first task would be to find official sources. Newspaper articles, mainly, but maybe a live news report had found its way to YouTube. After that, she would lean into some of her more exotic sources.

A search of “Joe Hampton Cape Madre” turned up two news articles from the local paper, one about an attack and another about his death. The dates of the two articles differed by a month. Miriam clicked the first article.

Local man Joe Hampton was admitted to Emergency Plus hospital this past Thursday for an injury related to a shark attack. Mr. Hampton was working on a fishing boat at the time.

Mr. Hampton sustained significant bruising on his leg, in addition to perforated skin and substantial blood loss. Though doctors warn that he may have permanent damage to his leg, he is expected to be released from the hospital within a few days.

“I am just so grateful that he got to the hospital in time,” said Mr. Hampton’s wife, Stacy. “We appreciate all of the many well-wishes from the community.”

Shark attacks off the coast of Cape Madre are rare, and generally only lead to minor abrasions. Sharks rarely exceed four feet, and most commonly enter shallow waters to feed on stingrays.

A shark attack? Possible, but unlikely. Miriam had a hard time believing that a shark in the coastal waters of Cape Madre could be capable of doing that much damage. And if it had only been a shark attack, then why would the librarian have mentioned Joe Hampton at all? Miriam clicked over to the second article.

Local man Joe Hampton has been pronounced dead following a tragic drowning accident. His death comes almost one month after suffering a shark attack.

“We are heartbroken to hear of Joe’s death,” Detective Tommy Wallace of the Cape Madre police department said. “Joe was a wonderful man and a personal friend. His death will weigh heavily on the community.”

Mr. Hampton’s body was found in the waters off Cape Madre after a tourist reported seeing a man swimming out to sea, past the buoys that separate the beach area from the fishing lanes. It is unclear why Mr. Hampton was swimming out so far.

Those who wish to offer condolences are invited to send flowers to the Manchester Funeral Home on Palm Street. Mr. Hampton is survived by his wife, Stacy.

Miriam sat back in her chair, so absorbed in her reading that she didn’t notice Macy pop back into the room, now with perfectly straightened hair and expertly-applied makeup.

“Earth to Mir. You ok?” Macy said, jolting Miriam’s attention away from the screen.

“Uh. Yeah. Fine. Just reading about this guy. He got attacked by a shark, recovered, and then drowned a month later.”

Macy rummaged around in her poorly organized suitcase that sat open on her bed, pulling out a matching set of underwear. Miriam had no matching sets of underwear.

Macy stopped dressing and shrugged. “It’s a beach town. I’m sure people drown all the time.”

Miriam nodded. “Yeah. That’s true. But the librarian. There’s gotta be more to this story, right?”

Macy held up two dresses in front of her, swapping them back and forth in front of the floor length mirror bolted to the wall, making faces at each of them before turning to Miriam.

Macy swapped them back and forth a few more times for Miriam’s benefit. “Which one?”

Miriam didn’t want to pick out dresses. She wanted to talk about Joe Hampton, and mysterious sea creatures. Macy kept moving the dresses back and forth, though, expectantly waiting for an answer.

Miriam forced herself to be a good friend and consider the dresses. One was the typical “tiny black dress,” coming down to mid-thigh with spaghetti straps and a deep neckline. The other, a shiny green number with cap sleeves and a V-neck. They both looked great, Miriam supposed, but the green of the dress, paired with Macy’s big green eyes and red hair, would be a phenomenal look.

Macy turned back to the mirror and considered the green one again, smiling at herself in the mirror as if to see whether the dress would look good when she showed teeth.

While admiring herself, Macy asked, “You think he was attacked by something else? The thing you saw?”

She tossed the black dress on the bed and removed the green one from the hanger.

Miriam answered, “I don’t know. Maybe? Seems likely, right? Given what we know.”

Macy stepped into her dress and pulled it up snugly across her hips and onto her shoulders, then walked over and presented her back to Miriam for zipping, all before replying, “Yeah, I guess so. But what are you gonna do?”

That was a good question that Miriam didn’t have the full answer to just yet. It felt natural for her to be investigating this, and she found it a lot more engaging than typical spring break shenanigans, but could she really expect to hunt this thing? Before the split with her father, Miriam had had access to weapons and equipment she could use to hunt and maybe even kill it, but now she had only a borrowed laptop and a cheap cell phone. Where would she get the support needed to carry through with this?

After one last look in the mirror, Macy turned towards Miriam again and curtsied, a playful laugh echoing into the room as she raised her eyebrows and silently asked for Miriam’s approval. The dress looked amazing, of course, as Miriam had predicted. With some heels to boost Macy’s height, Miriam doubted that anyone would be able to resist her.

Before Miriam could offer her doubts about that statement, someone knocked on the door. Macy, already standing in front of the mirror in the hallway, leaned over and pulled the door open to reveal Tanner, standing with one hand snug in a pocket of his well-fit chinos.

Macy turned back into the room, causing Tanner to catch the door and step inside. “Yeah. Just gotta get some shoes.”

Miriam watched as Macy stepped into a pair of three-inch heels, bending over to get the straps pulled onto her feet. Her look complete, Macy was ready for action.

Before leaving Miriam alone with her research, Macy turned back one last time. “We’ll miss you tonight. Have fun!”

Macy’s effervescent smile felt genuine and honest, giving Miriam the briefest pause about her night’s plans. No— she wanted to keep digging. “Thanks. You too!”

Tanner gave a small wave and the door slammed shut, leaving the room silent. Miriam lingered on the idea of spending time having fun. Would she even be able to have fun? She had no ability to dance whatsoever. Her life had always been so driven, and even without the whip of her father behind her, she still wanted to accomplish things. Meaningful things.

Pushing Tanner and Macy out of her mind, Miriam went back to searching. She didn’t find any long-form information, but within a few minutes she found herself staring at the link for a cryptid forum. It might have information about what really happened to Joe, but that link would take her somewhere she had tried so hard to avoid.

Ignoring her father’s smug headshot in the top left-hand corner, she focused on the thread. A person claiming to be a junior medical examiner for the Cape Madre coroner’s office had written up a long description of the injuries that Joe had sustained, as witnessed after the retrieval of his body a month after the attack. The content of the description starkly opposed the idea of a shark attack. Instead of jagged, tooth-rendered wounds, the lacerations were more consistent with cuts. Joe had also, allegedly, suffered significant bruising, which the coroner attributed to being squeezed with extreme force.

And then, at the end, the strangest description of all — perfectly circular bruising up and down Joe’s leg.

Miriam’s heart jumped in her chest as everything clicked together. Emma had also suffered bruising, and though Miriam hadn’t noticed any circles, it was possible that the immediate trauma was covering it up, hiding it among the more generalized discoloration of her skin. Circles meant suction cups. Suction cups meant tentacles. Like an octopus. Or a squid.

Miriam scrolled down, fearing what she may find next. She passed by random comments from enthusiasts offering up possible cryptids, alternate theories by skeptics, and then the one reply she didn’t want to see. Skylar Brooks himself had responded, indicating that he was eager to learn more about this attack.

Had her father already investigated this? Had he been here? In Cape Madre? She quickly clicked over to his main page and scrolled through the news section, looking for any indication of an expedition to Cape Madre.

She found nothing. The latest post indicated that he and his research team were on a safari in Papua New Guinea looking for pterodactyls. Miriam exhaled and melted back into her chair, pondering on the curious fear that her father might be drawn to Cape Madre.

She clicked on the link to his research team, a team that less than two years ago had consisted of herself, Tanner, and Cornelius. Now she had been replaced. All of them had. Miriam was now Brynn, a short-haired blonde girl with a crooked smile. Tanner was Gabriel, a burly bearded man with tiny eyes and huge biceps. And Cornelius had become Kent, a scrawny, bespectacled biologist. The new team so closely mirrored Miriam’s family that it flushed her cheeks with anger. How could he do this? His son had died, and he’d just replaced him with a nerdy college graduate?

Miriam slammed the laptop shut. Perhaps there was more to find on Joe Hampton, but she couldn’t do it right now. Not when every search would inevitably lead back to her past. She hated him. She tried to avoid admitting that to herself, but she did. He had ruined her entire life. He’d made her into the anti-social weirdo that she had become. Because of him, she now sat alone in a hotel room instead of partying with her friends. She didn’t know who she was anymore. Was she obsessed with this creature because she had a genuine interest, or because Skylar Brooks had taught her to be? Did she even have any real interests of her own?

Miriam threw herself onto the bed, desperately trying to sort through it all. Her mind tugged at a new idea. An idea that she could be something else. That she could change herself to whatever she wanted. Maybe she could dig deep enough and find out who Miriam Brooks was really meant to be.

Or she could beat him. She could show him that she had surpassed him. Skylar Brooks was a con-man, traveling from place to place and convincing people that he could save them from a monster that often never existed. Cryptozoology had a hard enough time being taken seriously, and Skylar Brooks did it no favors. If she could find this thing, she could legitimize the industry. She could amass more power than him and crowd him out.

She felt petty and vindictive as she stared at the worn walls of her hotel room. Maybe it was a bad idea. She couldn’t suppress echoes of her father’s voice telling her to work harder, to be less awkward. She conjured memories of traveling the country, never sleeping, waiting on him hand and foot. Always doing what he told her. Always striving to be the best at everything that he taught her. And she was the best at those things. Those unusual, completely useless-to-the-real-world things.