Michael Subjack's Blog - Posts Tagged "cryptid"

Who was she?

For most of her life, she had been Molly, a plain and somewhat overweight girl; the kind of person you’d meet and immediately forget. For the last two years, she had been Molly, a plain and somewhat overweight girl who happened to be the girlfriend of YouTube star Leah Marshall.

“You’re my muse,” Leah would whisper to her every night in bed.

Sometimes sleep would follow, other times Molly would feel Leah’s hand slide into her underwear. Both outcomes were welcomed because both of them involved Leah.

Molly had been a barista at a Starbucks in Los Feliz when they first met. Despite having been born and raised in La-La Land, Molly’s life had consisted of work and holing up in her bedroom at her mother’s house. Between feeling like she had no discernible talent and nothing to offer anyone in a romantic partnership, doing anything else seemed extraneous.

Leah saw things differently. She came to Starbucks every day, sometimes twice, and would engage Molly in conversation on the regular. It wasn’t long before that conversation took on a flirtatious tone. Molly was frankly terrified when Leah asked her out, but accepted, anyway. She had developed a growing crush on Leah and disappointing her would have been akin to turning down a million dollars. The relationship advanced quickly and within six months, Molly was moved into Leah’s apartment. Between Leah’s three million YouTube subscribers and a hefty advance for a book, they lived quite well. And the nature of her YouTube channel entailed a lot of traveling, sometimes to exotic locations. It had all seemed perfect and that was where Molly should have been suspicious from the get-go. Nobody enjoyed a perfect life; particularly if their previous one had consisted of being a chunky wallflower.

It took about two years before things started to go downhill. Leah spent long hours away from home and she hadn’t bothered to bring Molly on her last several trips. On the infrequent occasions when they still went to bed together, Leah didn’t call Molly her muse and she tended to keep her hands to herself. Molly tried to make sense of how and why this had happened, but she understood that oftentimes relationships break down and people grow indifferent without any real catalyst. Molly had spent her life being forgotten and now it looked like it was going to happen again.

Presently, she was on a small boat with Leah, her crew, and a captain with missing teeth who had taken more than a few leering glances at Leah. Molly couldn’t really fault him; in addition to being a YouTube star with a magnetic personality, Leah was also very pretty. The weather on Lake Kahontsi was presently a bitter thirty-eight degrees, but Leah was dressed in stylish skinny jeans and an overcoat with a fur-lined collar. She wore fuzzy pink earmuffs and gloves adorned with the kids from Stranger Things. As the comments on her Twitter and Instagram liked to routinely tell her, she looked adorable.

The rest of her crew consisted of two camera operators and a sound person. The camera operators, Tim and Ross, were each armed with a Panasonic Lumix wrapped in protective plastic. Amy the sound girl held out a large shotgun mic and Molly wondered how any of this audio would be usable. The wind was loud and the boat’s engine louder. Leah wore a lav mic hidden carefully inside her jacket, but Molly reasoned when they got back to Los Angeles, there would be a lot of voice-over work and that meant more time away from home. Normally, Leah hated having to do voice-overs, but given the current status of their relationship, Molly wondered if that was still the case.

“Hey, guys, it’s Leah!” her girlfriend chirped in her usual greeting. “We’re on Lake Kahontsi in search of the elusive creature that supposedly inhabits its icy waters…”

Molly tuned the rest out and stared out at the lake instead. She supposed on a less gloomy and overcast day it might look more impressive, but right now it just looked murky and uninviting. Given how cold the water must be, Molly reasoned that any creature living in it would have vacated years ago. What they were in search of was said to bear a striking resemblance to the Loch Ness Monster and had been seen around the small Upstate New York lake for the better part of two hundred years.

As part of her “research”, Leah devoured every show and documentary the streaming platforms had to offer that covered ghosts, UFOs, and cryptids. There had been several about the Loch Ness Monster and lake monsters in general. Witnesses were interviewed and experts weighed in and Molly found it all to be a hilarious waste of time because nobody bothered to address the obvious: There was no way these creatures would be able to survive in a small body of water for hundreds of years. Save for certain types of fish, tortoises, and urchins, Molly couldn’t think of any animal that had that kind of longevity, but it didn’t matter. Searching for the unknown and likely non-existent was how Leah (and by extension Molly) made her living.

Despite being layered in tights, wool socks, brown cords, two hoodies, and a long-sleeved t-shirt, Molly was freezing. This had been the first excursion Leah had brought her on in some time and it seemed fitting the setting so was miserable.

Molly turned her attention back to Leah and the crew and saw they were shooting what Molly called the “cutie cuts,” which consisted of quick shots of Leah making goofy faces and blurting out silly non-sequiturs. They were generally used as transitions and were often saved until the end of filming, but Lake Kahontsi was shaping up to be a bit of a disappointment. For the alleged haunted houses Leah visited, she often had production assistants off-camera throwing things and making strange noises. Sometimes they just got lucky and had something unexplainable happen, like when they had visited Stone Canyon State Park in Ohio. Stone Canyon was reputed to be the Bigfoot capital of the United States and while they hadn’t gotten any actual footage of the creature, they found footprints and heard mysterious sounds coming from the woods. A freezing lake was a different story. While Leah had money to spend, convincing footage of a water dinosaur was a little out of her reach.

“Okay, cut,” Leah sighed.

They had gotten the cutie cuts, despite the fact Leah’s impatience was starting to show. Even if the expedition on the lake was likely a bust, it wasn’t like the episode would be a total loss. They had spent yesterday in the small town that sat adjacent to the lake interviewing the locals and getting some pretty good B-roll. Most of the townspeople were more than willing to talk about Katie (as the lake monster was known) and it was easy to see why. The town didn’t have a lot going for it, but it had no shortage of tacky Katie memorabilia. The local diner even served a heart-clogging monstrosity known as the “Katie Burger”, which came in a sub roll shaped like the supposed creature. And to Molly’s great surprise, it was pretty good. Maybe the best burger she had eaten in months. Leah hadn’t eaten hers, of course. After holding it up to the camera with a look of mock surprise and taking one baby bite, she swapped it out for a salad roughly the size of a silver dollar. As if Molly didn’t already feel like enough of a blimp standing next to her.

“Check it out!” Tim called out as he swung his camera around.

In the distance, there was some commotion in the water. Leah and the rest of the crew eagerly scurried to the other side of the boat, but it was obvious to Molly it was just a normal-sized fish.

“Probably just carp,” said a bored voice, confirming her suspicion.

Everyone looked over at Bo, the dentally challenged captain. He flashed a jagged, picket-fence grin at them and quickly turned the boat around, almost causing Leah and the crew to fall over. Molly, who was seated, had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

“Sorry!” Bo said in a sing-song voice.

Despite his leering looks at Leah, Molly couldn’t help but think that a YouTube personality from L.A. probably seemed like the very height of pampered elitism. And as Bo was a blue-collar guy living in a one-horse town, that probably made Leah about as relatable as a Martian.

“What are you doing?” Leah shrieked at him as she struggled to regain her balance.
“Turnin’ us around,” Bo replied with a tinge of amusement. “Them carp splashing around mean Katie ain’t over there. She’d have ate them otherwise.”

“Please let us know if you’re going to do that in the future,” Leah commanded. “This equipment’s very expensive.”

Even with his back turned, Molly could practically see Bo’s forehead furrow. No Hollywood asshole told him what to do, particularly not a female Hollywood asshole.

“That scrawny bitch tried bossin’ me around!” Molly imagined him telling the boys over a round of Keystone later that night. “But I just laughed in her face. You believe the nerve of that fuckin’ skirt?”

And then the boys would belch and laugh. Molly almost envied them. At least they’d have something to laugh about.

“You guys keep getting shots of the lake,” Leah said. “I’m taking a break.”

The crew dutifully did as they were told and Leah took a seat next to Molly.

“So how are you doing?” she asked as she slowly rubbed her gloved hands together.

“I’m okay,” Molly replied. “Aren’t you cold?”

Leah shrugged and turned her half-interested gaze toward the lake. Molly watched as a strand of her voluminous blonde hair danced delicately in the breeze. Molly wondered if it was the same strand she had brushed out of Leah’s face shortly after they had made love for the first time. It suddenly seemed like a million years ago.

“Sorry about this,” Leah said after a moment. “I mean, I knew it was going to be cold, but I wasn’t expecting Ice Station Zebra.”

“It’s fine,” Molly replied with a forced smile.

“I’m just glad we’re together.”

She reached out to give Leah’s hand a squeeze and found it akin to gripping a dead fish. Leah slowly pulled her hand away and despite the near-freezing temperatures, Molly’s face suddenly felt like it was on fire.

“I know this isn’t the time for this,” Leah said slowly. “But we need to talk when we get back to L.A.”

Molly did her best to play it cool and wait before she responded. Not that it would do any good.

“Am I no longer your muse?”

It was a weak response, but she needed to say something.

“We’ll talk later,” Leah said as she stiffly rose out of her chair. “But can you really say you’re surprised?”
Molly couldn’t, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

Leah started to make her way back to the crew when she turned around to face Molly again.
“Listen, Mol…”

That was all she could get out. Because at that exact moment, something big struck the side of the boat.

“Jesus!”

Leah struggled to keep her balance as she made her way toward Bo.

“What the fuck was that?” she asked as she grabbed the back of his seat for support.

“I don’t know,” Bo said shakily.

Molly could see his fear was genuine and it was spreading to Leah and the crew “Maybe a sunken tree but…”

He didn’t believe it and neither did anyone else. Tim, Amy, and Ross lowered their gear and looked at Leah. As the boss, it was up to her to determine what happened next. Leah, now way out of her element, turned her slightly panicked gaze back to Bo.

“What now?” she asked.

Bo shrugged.

“I can take us back to the dock, but I need everyone seated.”

Leah and the crew did this without question. Amy clung to her boom pole like it was a security blanket and Tim and Ross tucked their cameras into their coats. Molly gripped the sides of her chair and felt droplets of sweat break out on her forehead and under her arms. She allowed herself one fleeting glimpse at Leah, which proved to be a mistake. There was a pleading vulnerability in her already captivating hazel eyes that made Molly want to go to her. She looked again and saw that’s what Leah wanted, too. Despite whatever danger they were in, Molly didn’t care. If this saved their relationship, she’d walk across flaming coals if she had to. She rose to her feet and made her way to Leah crouched over like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

“Stay in your seat!” Bo bawled, but Molly didn’t listen.

The woman she loved needed her. She stumbled across the slippery deck and fell into Ross. Even with the cold air swirling around them, she could smell his sour, fear-soaked breath. She braced her hands on his shoulders and pushed herself back up to make her way toward Leah. He grabbed her wrist and shook his head, his eyes pleading for her to stay, but she ignored him and continued at a more cautious pace.

As she got closer to Leah, she heard Amy scream as a ripple of cold water splashed onto the deck. Off the port side, she saw something dark and massive moving parallel to the boat.

The glimpse was fleeting, as it quickly disappeared below the surface. The boat continued to rock in the choppy water, but a strange stillness had permeated the air. Molly finally reached Leah and put her arms around her. Leah gratefully returned the gesture as the two of them sobbed and shook.

“Everyone okay?” Bo finally managed.

His smug swagger had completely dissipated. What remained was human and even relatable. Like Leah and her crew, Bo had simply come out here to make some money. The idea that there was something dangerous in the lake he had traversed dozens, if not hundreds of times, had been nonexistent before today. Leah gently pulled herself away from Molly and turned to her crew.

“Did you get any of that?” she asked with a weak smile.

Tim scoffed, but Ross and Amy remained glassy-eyed and silent. Molly had a feeling Leah would be looking for a new crew when they got back to L.A.

“Taking us back to shore,” Bo said. “Everyone get in your seats. And stay there this time.”

He glared at Molly, who took the hint. After she was seated, Bo turned the boat around and aimed it toward the dock they had departed from.

“I’m so glad you’re so safe,” Molly whispered to Leah as she wrapped her arms around her.

In return, Leah gave her a non-committal pat on the shoulder. It was a gesture that was completely devoid of affection and emotion. Nothing had changed. The relief they had just shared had nothing to do with love. It was simply catharsis that could have been shared with anyone (even Bo).

Molly slowly relinquished her grip as knots of sadness and humiliation tightened in her belly. But there was more than that. Resentment and anger were bubbling inside her brain. Even though she had risked her life for Leah, her cruel indifference toward Molly remained firmly intact. As they got closer to the dock, the crew concentrated on putting their equipment in the proper cases while Leah stood up and moved away from Molly, whose eyes began to sting from the now almost unbearable feelings of resentment and humiliation.

As Leah kept her eyes trained on the dock, Molly stood up and inched her way toward her. Leah turned to her with a curious expression and just as she started to speak, the boat was struck again. The crew screamed and dropped their equipment, clinging to each other much in the same manner as Leah and Molly.

“Everyone stay seated!” Bo bellowed as he tried to regain control of the boat.

There was another scream followed this time by a splash. Bo and the others looked back to see Leah shrieking and flailing in the water. Bo tossed a life ring to her and Leah groped for it, but was pulled below the surface before she could fully grab it.

Everyone gasped and watched in horror as the water began to froth and turn red. It was over in seconds, but each had felt more unending and agonizing than the previous one. When the lake finally fell still again, there was no sign of Leah, just a cloud of red swirling on the surface. Amy and Ross began to weep. As they all turned to Molly with bewildered and accusatory stares, she looked out at the lake and focused her attention on the water.

The cold, unforgiving water.