MidReal Story
Dark was the night, and Stormy was the sea. Heavy waves breaks the shore. Thunder strikes. A scary creature left the ocean and entered the dark forest in the northern lands...
Scenario: Dark was the night, and Stormy was the sea. Heavy waves breaks the shore. Thunder strikes. A scary creature left the ocean and entered the dark forest in the northern lands...
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Chapter One
The first time I saw the creature from the ocean, it was a week after my twenty-fifth birthday and six days after my mother’s obituary ran in the Boston Globe. The world had been falling apart around me for weeks—months really—so you’d think that by this point nothing could have surprised me.
But this did.
I’d been out past the last buoy in my kayak when it happened. My mom had left me her car when she died, and driving always made me feel guilty about my carbon footprint, so I’d taken up kayaking instead. The ocean was only a few blocks from my apartment and being out on the water was soothing—almost like therapy—and yet it burned plenty of calories too (so maybe it actually counted as therapy).
I’d gone farther than usual on this particular evening because I wanted to be alone with my thoughts. Or maybe I didn’t want to be alone with them—I wasn’t sure which. The truth was that sometimes my mom’s death hit me harder than others. There were days when it seemed like she’d been gone for years and days when it seemed like only yesterday when I got that horrible phone call from my aunt saying that she was dead.
This was one of those days.
Anyway, I’d paddled out past the last buoy—just far enough so that it was no longer in sight—then turned my kayak around and started heading back toward shore. The sun had already set by this point and there was only a faint glow left on the horizon.
And then suddenly there it was: a dark shape rising up out of the water right in front of me.
My first thought was that it must be a shark—a great white or maybe a tiger shark—because what else could it be? We were only about twenty miles from Cape Cod, which is one of the world’s biggest breeding grounds for great whites (right up there with South Africa and Australia). It made sense that one might wander up this way if it got lost or disoriented or hungry—or all three.
But whatever this thing was, it wasn’t trying to eat me—at least not yet—because instead of attacking (or even swimming away), it had just risen up out of the water and hung there for a moment as if checking me out.
And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, it sank back down beneath the waves and disappeared.
I paddled back to shore as fast as I could after that (which wasn’t very fast because I’m not exactly an Olympic-caliber kayaker). And then I immediately got in touch with my boss at Tufts to tell him what I’d seen.
“Are you sure?” Dr. Osborne asked when I finished telling him the story.
“Of course,” I said. “I know what a shark looks like.”
“Maybe you were mistaken,” he said. “It was getting dark out and you were probably tired after a long day in the lab. You might have imagined things.”
“I didn’t imagine anything,” I said. “I’m a scientist, not some kind of flake. What I saw was real.”
I wasn’t crazy. But whatever Dr. Osborne thought of me, he didn’t say it. Instead he sighed heavily on the other end of the line.
“Look, Sarah,” he said. “Even if what you say is true, there’s not much we can do about it. There’s no money for research, especially not on something like this.”
“There has to be some kind of grant for studying sharks,” I said.
“It wasn’t a shark,” he said. “You said so yourself. You don’t even know what it was.”
I didn’t. And I got the distinct feeling that Dr. Osborne didn’t want me to find out. Not that I cared what he wanted at that point. I’d already made up my mind as soon as I’d seen the creature. I was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another.
“You’re right,” I told him. “I don’t know what it was. But I’m going to find out. And if you won’t help me, then I’ll find someone who will. I promise you that.”
Dr. Osborne didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he finally sighed again.
“Fine,” he said. “But don’t get your hopes up. Even if you do figure out what it is, we’re not going to be able to do anything about it. The important thing is that we focus on the research we already have.”
“Fine,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let this go.”
“I didn’t think it did,” he said. “I just wish there was something I could do to change your mind.”
“No, you don’t,” I said, but he must have been talking to someone else at that point, because he didn’t respond.
Instead he hung up the phone without another word.
Not that I cared.
I was too busy thinking about what had just happened—what I’d seen.
It wasn’t a shark.
It couldn’t have been.
It was something else entirely, something even more amazing.
And I was going to figure out what it was, no matter what it took.
Chapter Two
The first person I thought of calling was Eric, my ex-boyfriend.
He’d been my boyfriend for four years and my friend for two more before that, so we were pretty close.
We’d only broken up a few months earlier, but even so we were still on good terms—mostly because there hadn’t really been any one thing that had caused us to break up in the first place.
It had been more like a gradual realization that we were better off as friends than as lovers, and so we’d decided to go our separate ways (which seemed pretty sensible at the time).
And anyway, Eric was probably the best journalist I knew—next to my dad—so it made sense that I would call him first.
I didn’t want to call my dad because I didn’t want him to worry—but also, I didn’t want him to tell me not to go looking for the creature in the first place.
I knew that if I wanted to get any information about it at all, then I would have to keep some things under wraps, at least until I had more information.
And even though my dad was a great journalist, he was also really good at keeping secrets—so it made sense that I would talk to him, too, especially if he and Eric ended up working together on this story (which seemed pretty likely).
So, anyway, there I was, sitting in my living room, trying to decide whether I should call Eric or my dad first.
I knew that it was getting late, and that they’d probably both be asleep—or at least out of reach—but I was too excited to wait.
In the end, I decided to call Eric because I knew that he was probably more likely to answer his phone (since he was a night owl like me), and also because he lived in Boston, which was only about an hour away from where I lived (in Worcester), and so it would be easier for him to come visit me (if he wanted to).
Eric and I had been having a lot of fun together since we’d broken up, but this was definitely going to be the biggest story we’d ever worked on together (if only because it would be so hard to verify).
The phone rang once, twice, three times.
“Hello?”
Eric asked groggily.
“Hey, Eric,” I said.
“It’s Sarah.
Are you busy?
I have something important I need to tell you.”
“Hey, babe,” Eric said.
“Not really.
I’m just watching TV.”
“Cool,” I said.
“Um…is your roommate there?”
“No,” Eric said.
“He’s out of town for the weekend.”
“Oh…good,” I said.
“Good?
Why is that good?”
Eric asked.
“I mean, uh…not that I don’t like your roommate.
It’s just that…
Well, you know how we’ve been spending a lot of time together lately?”
“Yeah,” Eric said.
“What about it?”
“And you know how we’re not really seeing other people, but we’re also not officially back together?”
“Yeah,” Eric said again.
“What about it?”
“And you know how you’ve always wanted to get back into journalism—and you’ve been saying how much you miss it?
And you miss me?”
Eric chuckled.
“Yes, Sarah,” he said.
“I miss you (and journalism).
What’s going on?
Why are you asking me all these questions?”
“Because…
I think I saw something really strange in the ocean today,” I said.
“I tried to tell my boss about it, but he didn’t believe me.”
“What did you see?”
Eric asked, sounding more awake now.
“It was like…
A monster, or something,” I said.
“I know that sounds crazy, but…
I swear, it was real!
It was huge, and it was black, and it had all these tentacles—and red eyes!”
“And what did your boss say when you told him about it?”
Eric asked.
“He said that I was probably just imagining things,” I said.
“He thinks that I’m too stressed out, and that my brain is playing tricks on me.”
“And do you think that’s true?”
Eric asked.
“I mean, you have been pretty stressed out lately—ever since your mom died.”
“I know, but…
But…something really weird is going on in the ocean right now, Eric,” I said.
“Like what?”
he asked.
“All of the marine life is disappearing from this area!”
I said.
“And…
And…
I don’t know how to explain this, but…
The last time I saw the monster, it was like…
It was like it was looking right at me!”
“Well then…maybe it’s hunting you,” Eric said with a laugh.
“I really don’t think this is funny,” I said.
“I’m being serious!
And…
And I’ve been doing some research, and there are a lot of people in the area who say they’ve seen the same thing!”
“So why are you calling me?
I mean, if you already did all of this research…”
“Well…
I can’t exactly investigate it by myself, can I?”
I asked.
“And I know that you’re not really a journalist anymore, but…
You used to be so good at finding out information about weird things like this!”
“I really am not a journalist anymore,” Eric said.
“And you broke up with me, remember?”
“I know, but…I was kinda hoping that you could maybe help me with this anyway?”
I said.
“I’m really worried about what’s going to happen if this thing is as dangerous as I think it is!”
There was a long pause before Eric answered me.
“You called me because you want my help?”
he finally asked softly.
“This isn’t just an excuse to talk to me?”
“Well…I mean…I do miss you,” I admitted.
“But this is really important!
I saw the monster myself.”
“If you’ve seen it yourself, then why do you need me?”
Eric asked. “Can’t you just tell your boss that she’s wrong? That there actually is a monster out there?”
I bit my lip nervously.
“Well…I’ve never actually seen a monster before,” I admitted. “It looked more like a giant alien squid than anything else!”
Eric asked. “Are you sure that you didn’t just fall asleep in your kayak?”
“No!
I wasn’t dreaming!”
I insisted.
“I even have photos of it!
They didn’t come out very well in the dark but I swear they’re real!”
“Okay…so you think there’s a squid-like alien sea monster living in the bay outside of Boston?”
“I don’t think it’s alien,” I said.
“I just don’t know how else to describe it.
I guess it kind of looked like a giant octopus.”
“An octopus?”
Eric repeated in disbelief.
“If that’s all it is, then what are you so worried about?”
“Because octopuses are supposed to be in the ocean!
Not in a bay where people swim and play all summer long!”
I exclaimed.
“I’ve never heard of them being so close to shore before!”
“Okay,” Eric said.
“So what do you need me to do?”
“Well…I was hoping that we could go looking for it together?”
I said.
“I mean…if it really is some kind of undiscovered species of marine life, don’t you think that we should be the ones to study it?”
“Why us?”
Eric asked.
“Don’t you think that marine biologists at Tufts would be more qualified than we are?”
“But I work at Tufts and I can’t do it by myself!”
I explained.
“Plus…if we find it first it could mean a lot of money for research grants!
Tufts would love you if you helped me with this story!”
Eric was silent for a moment.
“I don’t know, Sarah,” he said slowly.
“We broke up three months ago.
I still love you…but I don’t think that this is something that we should be doing together.”
My heart sank as I realized that he was right.
But then I had an idea.
“We can work together on it as friends,” I suggested.
“And then when we find it we can get back together and get married and have kids!”
I added quickly.
“Kids?”
Eric repeated.
“Since when do you want kids?
I thought that we agreed that we wanted to wait until we were in our mid-thirties.”
“I know…but I’m still young enough to have healthy babies now if we start trying soon!”
I insisted.
“Eric…I love you so much!
And I miss you every day!
If we can just do this one last thing together then I’ll never let anything come between us again.”
There was a long pause as I held my breath and waited for Eric to answer me.
“Okay,” he said finally.
He sounded defeated but I didn’t care.
I had gotten what I wanted and that was all that mattered to me at this point.
I knew that I had manipulated him into doing what I wanted by mentioning marriage and babies but I didn’t care. This time it would be different. This time I wouldn’t make the same mistakes that I had made before. This time we would stay together forever. And that was a promise that I intended to keep. No matter what it took.
Chapter 3: Investigating The Creature (Part 1)
The next morning Jack drove up to my house at 6:00 am sharp. He looked exhausted but he had a big smile on his face as he got out of his car and came up to my front door.
“Are you ready?” he asked me eagerly.
“You bet I am,” I said with a grin as I ran to give Jack a hug.
“I’m so glad that you’re here!”
I was really looking forward to working with him again.
I always felt safe whenever he was around.
And I knew that I would need his protection if we were going to find the creature.
Jack looked at me in surprise.
“You don’t look like you’ve had much sleep,” he said, looking concerned.
“I didn’t,” I admitted with a guilty look.
“I was too excited about our investigation of the creature.”
“You’re like a little girl who’s too excited to sleep on Christmas Eve!”
Jack said with a laugh.
“I can’t help it,” I told him with a smile.
“I love this kind of stuff.
“You’re going to make yourself sick if you don’t get enough sleep,” Jack said worriedly.
“We can’t have that happening.”
“I’ll be fine!”
I tried to assure him.
“I just need to drink more coffee.”
“You’re not going to be any good to me if you’re hopped up on caffeine,” Jack said with a frown.
“And I’m only going to be as strong as my weakest link, so I need you to be at your best.”
I pouted, but Jack’s words were true.
I would be no good to him if I was tired and sick from lack of sleep, and I knew it.
It was just so hard to calm down when I was so excited about what we were about to do!
After spending weeks studying everything we could find on the creature, we were finally going to go out into the ocean and see it for ourselves.
It was like all of my dreams were finally coming true.
I was going to be the first person in history to see the monster and live to tell about it.
This was the kind of thing that I’d been dreaming about ever since I was a little girl.
There was no way that I could sleep knowing that I was going to be living out my wildest fantasy!
Jack noticed the faraway look in my eyes.
“What are you thinking about?”
he asked.
“The creature,” I replied, still staring off into space.
“I still can’t believe that we’re finally going to see it.
All of those days and nights that we spent studying it are finally going to pay off.”
“Now who sounds like a little girl?”
Jack said with a chuckle.
I stuck my tongue out at him.
“I don’t care, I’m just excited!
You know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment.
It’s all that I can think about right now.”
My eyes lit up with excitement once again.
“Just think of all of the stories that we’re going to be able to tell people once we get back home.
We’re going to be famous!”
“I don’t care about being famous,” Jack said.
“I just want to be the one who finally proves that monsters really do exist.”
“Well, your wish is about to come true!”
I said gleefully.
“Even though you’ll probably never admit it, you’re just as excited as I am right now.”
Jack rolled his eyes, but there was a hint of a smile on his face.
“Maybe you’re right,” he admitted.
“This is going to be the story of the decade.
People are going to be talking about this for years to come.
And I’ll have the best excuse to go back to school and get my degree in journalism while you’re off studying the monster for your research grant.”
“Don’t sound so glum,” I told him.
“I’m sure that you’ll do fine on your own.
Besides, you never did like school when you were a kid.
What makes you think you’d like it now?”
“I never liked school because of all of the people,” Jack explained.
“I was always the odd one out, and none of the other kids ever wanted to play with me.
I didn’t fit in with the popular kids or the freaks.
I was just there.
I felt bad for him.
In a way, I could relate to what Jack had been through.
“Look on the bright side,” I told him with a smile.
“At least you had some friends.
I was an outcast until junior high school.
That’s when I met Eric and we became friends.” I thought about my ex-boyfriend.
We had known each other for nearly fifteen years before we started dating.
Sometimes it was hard not to miss him.
“Anyway,” I said quickly, “there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
Jack rolled his eyes.
“Says the girl who is practically jumping up and down in her seat with excitement.”
I shrugged.
“So I’m excited.
You work hard enough; you deserve something like this.
Don’t be so hard on yourself,” I told him.
Jack smiled, and I knew that I had been right.
He had been working hard these past few months to get a story, anything that would be interesting enough to get him noticed.
But unfortunately it hadn’t been enough.
I thought back to the first time that Jack and I met.
We had been working at the same news station.
I had been hired as the new weather girl, and he’d been the lead anchor.
But then something happened.
A few months after I started working there, the ratings started to plummet.
My boss did everything that he could think of to bring them up, but nothing worked.
For a while, it seemed like the boss was just going to get rid of Jack.
But then Jack came up with a brilliant idea.
“Why don’t we work together?”
he asked me one day during a meeting.
“You and me out in the field, hunting down stories.
And then we can report on them together.”
It was a good idea, but my boss didn’t see how it would work.
“What makes you think that you two can find a story when none of my other reporters can?”
He asked Jack.
I didn’t say anything.
I knew that Jack had a plan, and I just hoped that it would work.
“I think that we can do it,” Jack said, putting his arm around me.
His voice was full of confidence, and I could tell that he actually believed what he was saying.
“Sarah’s got a good nose for news. And together we can do anything.”
For a moment, no one said anything.
Then my boss nodded.
“Alright,” he said.
“Give it a try.
The two of you have one week to find a story.
And if you don’t…”
He let the sentence hang in the air.
We both knew what would happen if we didn’t find something.
He would have no choice but to fire us.
Jack and I both knew that we were on thin ice.
We couldn’t afford to mess this up.
Not if we wanted to keep our jobs.
Chapter 3
Despite the pressure, I was excited about our new assignment.
Jack and I spent hours brainstorming ideas, trying to come up with the perfect story.
But nothing seemed to work.
Every time we thought that we had found something good, we would discover that someone else had already reported on it.
It was frustrating, but we didn’t give up.
After a few days of searching, Jack and I finally found something that we thought might work.
It wasn’t much.
Just a few rumors that had been circulating around town for a while.
Even so, Jack and I were intrigued by them.
We decided to look into the rumors, hoping that they would lead us to an interesting story.
The first rumor that we heard was about a group of people who had gone missing from the local village.
According to the rumor, the villagers had been visited by a strange woman with dark hair and black eyes.
She had warned them that a great evil was coming, and that the only way to stop it was to offer it a sacrifice.
The villagers had been so desperate for help that they had taken her warning seriously, and had chosen several of their own people to be sacrificed in hopes of appeasing the evil.
The rumor was that these people had disappeared, and that the strange woman had been seen leading them away from the village at night.
The second rumor concerned some bizarre events that had taken place in the forest near town.
Several villagers had reported that they had seen strange lights and heard eerie chanting coming from the woods at night.
One man claimed that he had stumbled upon a group of people wearing dark robes and chanting around a fire, while another said that he had seen a creature with green eyes and long claws lurking among the trees.
