5/1 22:49

After Kevin dropped Louis off at home, out of neighborly duty he swung by a few stretches of riverbank where Joey Brown might have gone missing, flashlight in hand, poking around for a while — but turned up nothing at all. Still, he figured he'd done his part, got back in the car, and turned around toward home.

Suddenly, along a stretch of road ahead, everything beyond the reach of his headlights lay in total darkness, save for the black silhouette of the town far off, glowing faintly red, and the Meuse River reflecting that red light back with an oddly restless swell.

"This streetlight's out again — where the hell does the town's money even go." Kevin slowed the car; the narrowed field of view made the drive feel uneasy.

Right at that moment, the headlights seemed to catch something crossing the road — something with markings, or spots, maybe — there and gone in a flash. Kevin slammed on the brakes on pure instinct; the cruiser's tires screamed against the asphalt, and it came to rest slightly askew in the middle of the road, headlights slanting across the pavement. Besides the engine and the chorus of insects, there was nothing there at all — only a dark, wet streak on the blacktop.

Kevin opened the door, flashlight in hand, and stepped out, moving slow and bewildered. What was that? Why had it crossed the road? An oversized spotted alligator? He examined the wet streak more closely — it was about as wide as a man's outstretched arms. Surely not, that had to be the water spreading out. But even so, that would put the thing's size at no less than two hundred kilos. Was there an alligator that big? Here? Now?

"Splash."

Not far off, from the darkness of the Meuse River, came the sound of something entering the water. Kevin swung his flashlight toward the riverbank, toward the Meuse — the wet trail ran all the way from the road down to the bank and into the river itself, where the water still rippled, and beneath the surface the shadow of something long was already receding into the distance.

Kevin spun around and sprinted back to the car as fast as he could, and, gripped by deep confusion and a fear just beginning to take root, fled the scene in a panic.