As soon as Johnny tucks the business card inside his coat pocket, everyone paid the bill and departed from the enormous Eridanus Hotel. 

Seagulls dropped its feces on establishments, floors, and even people—causing some to curse at the birds.

Trudging past the group were energetic civilians, decorating their depressing town with Christmas embellishments and joy.

In the meantime, Adelaide suggests that they should cover more territory.

"Triton, Thomas, and I are going to ask around town if they know anything about the sea dragon." she announced to the kids. "So while the adults are interviewing townsfolk, you kids go look for clues."

Brooke looks at her mother strangely.

"So, we're . . . splitting up?" she asks in a stupefied tone.

Thomas and Adelaide exchange troublesome looks.

"Brooke," she said in a tender voice. "We will come back, I promise. In the meantime, please take care of each other."

After kissing Brooke's forehead, Adelaide joined the departing men, whereas the teenage misfits explored the despicable town. 

The lukewarm temperature decreased into a slightly chilly climate, yet the sun hovered above the children's heads.

Nearly everyone in Lovecraft Creek had donned their leather blazers, satin trench coats, wooly sweaters, thick pants, and oversized winter boots.

Ringing his silver bell, a docile man — in a bright red Santa Claus outfit—pleas with the townsfolk to donate money to prevent a hospital from being torn apart.

Nevertheless, no one seems to care about a struggling infirmary. They only desire one thing and that's finding a perfect gift for their loved ones. 

"Please donate!" Santa Claus boomed to a shallow family of five. "Donate and send lots of—"

"Look, Mommy!" a little girl dashed towards an empty toy store and gazed through the window.

The woman looks through the dusty store and revolts.

"Why don't we find another store, sweetie?" she suggests in a Valley Girl accent.

But the daughter shakes her head stubbornly.

"Mom!" she whined. "Cabbage Patch Kids are on sale! Can we get one, please?"

Watching the scene unfold in front of her eyes, Nessa shudders in contempt. 

"Is this what everyone cares about?" she mumbles to herself. "People worshipping plastic dolls?"

Johnny follows her gaze at the inane family and said, "Christmas is such a joke these days."

Caleb nods solemnly.

The teenagers ignored an inexperienced choir singing Christmas songs in front of an abandoned grocery store.

"Joy to the World" tumbled from their lips as the ignorant kids try to liven the sullen atmosphere.

But every time the newspaper documents a recent sea monster attack, the inclusive town was too afraid to leave their own homes.

Speaking of a recent attack, Brooke senses that a bleeding man is coming this way.

A concerned Caleb stops dead in his tracks.

"Really?" he asks. "Who is it?"

"Is it Jason Young?" Nessa squeaked.

Of all the monsters she had encountered, the strange businessman gave her nothing but discomfort.

Johnny observes her disgusted scowl and gives Nessa a comforting hug.

"Everything is going to be okay," Johnny assures. "Just try to ignore it, alright?"

"Okay," Nessa mumbled. "But the guy gives me the creeps. Don't you?"

Her older brother Johnny expressed a sigh.

Truth be told, this Jason Young character made him feel a little anxious. His charisma and rivals an American president.

But somehow, his eyes tell a whole different story.

The children trotted on the sidewalk to find Adelaide, Triton, and Thomas; but before they can react, the entire town is swallowed whole by a thick fog.

What's funny about this mist is that it almost reminds me of something H.P. Lovecraft had once said to me before he died.

Something about fearing the unknown.

And so, with a quick sweep, costly Christmas decorations have been destroyed or caught up in the warm breeze.

"Jesus Christ," Johnny grunts. "Could the monster already be here?"

"No," Brooke answered. "It's—"

"Help me! Somebody help me!"

The group swerves their heads around to see a helpless man whose right arm has been chewed off by an unseeable monster.

This gruesome sight made everyone — including the choir—run across the empty road, screaming in terror.

While the chaos is going on, every strip mall,  supermarket, and the clothing store is closed for the time being.

One of the things I have hated about this place is that Lovecraft Creek is known for giving civilians a helping hand.

And yet as I am recording all of this down, I recall that no one wanted to help the scared man.

With the exception of our main anti-heroes, that is.

Dashing towards the traumatized soul, a shy Brooke exclaims: "Sir, we need to get you to a hospital right away!"

However, the man said no.

When a confused Nessa asked why, the man reminds them that not only are the stores closed, but hospitals and gas stations are refusing to take any more civilians.

"Jesus Christ," Johnny thinks warily. "I never imagined that the sea beast's reputation startled these tourists."

The bleeding man attempts to cover his right stump with his left hand, but the blood continues to spill on the frozen floor.

Inspecting the horrible wound, Brooke had the man sit down so she can stop the bleeding.

"It's okay, sir," she consoled. "Just breathe, alright?"

Brooke sets down her backpack, retrieves her medicine kit, and started healing the guy's bloody stump.

"What's your name?" Caleb asks.

The man winced at the humid odor of vinegar but tells the kids that his name is Shirley McCain.

"Wait, your mom named you Shirley ?" Nessa giggled.

As a skeptical man myself, I have to agree with Nessa. Shirley is a name mothers give to their daughters — not wounded boys.

An irritated Shirley swivels his eyes. "My mom wanted a girl, okay?"

Nessa struggles to cover her mouth, but Brooke and Johnny flash the girl menacing glares.

"What?" she sniggers. "You have to admit it's kinda funny."

Being the serious older brother, Johnny tells her to cut it out.

"Anyway, what happened?" he inquired.

Shirley takes a deep breath and lets out an exhausting moan. "My dad and I were out fishing when this thing—OUCH!"

Embarrassed, the young clairvoyant stops pouring apple cider vinegar on his fresh scar.

"I'm sorry," she says timidly. "If you want me to stop, I'll slow down."

Much to her surprise, Shirley shakes his head no and begs her to continue.

Smiling, Brooke dipped the cotton ball into the vinegar and resumed cleaning his injury.

"Anyway," the victim went on. "We were hunting for fish when we saw this thing in the water."

Caleb and Johnny exchange weird looks.

"What kind of monster?" ask Nessa.

Dark blood and water tarnished his dirty blonde as the male victim attempts to push his locks away from his eyes.

But his hair ends up clouding his face. The guy might have been right-handed because he has trouble doing tasks with his left hand.

"Well, it looked like one of those dragons you would normally see in China or Russia."

Brooke was so stunned that she nearly dropped her cotton ball.  

"A dragon?" she repeated. "Are you sure? Can you describe it to us?"

An attentive Nessa took over Brooke's job while the young oracle procures a black pen and sketchbook from her bag.  

Inquisitive, the man asked Brooke what she is doing.

"I am trying to draw a sketch of the monster," she answers.

The oracle uncaps her pen and starts drawing the monster the frightened testifier had illustrated to her.

He mentioned the monster had a snake-like body, golden-brown eyes, and razor-sharp teeth. Its snout is as large as a bus; bright orange spikes sprout its scaly blue back.

Caleb peered behind Brooke's shoulder so he can see the drawing for himself.

"Holy shit." he breathed. "Is that the monster he saw?"

"I think so," Brooke whispers back. "Should we show this to Shirley?"

That's when Shirley's large ears perked up.

"What?" he asked. "What did you draw?"

Brooke reluctantly shows her illustration to Shirley.

"Yeah!" Shirley cried. "That's the monster who murdered my dad! Why? Have you kids seen it before?"

Johnny and the others solemnly bob their heads.

During their first week in Idlewild Boarding School, the homeroom teacher had assigned the students to apprehend the sea dragon by any means necessary.

The monster put up a good fight, but the kids managed to kill it and discard the body before someone else saw it.

After cleaning the wound, Nessa applied the white gauge to the man's bloody stump.

"Thanks." he beamed.

Nessa puts on a cheerful smile as she tosses the garbage away.

"Don't thank me," she breathed. "Thank Dr. King over here."

Brooke gives her friend a humble smile and helps Nessa pack up her things. Meanwhile, Johnny tightens his fingers around the hilt of his katana.

"God, you have got to be shitting me," he said under his breath. "First the Kraken, and now this shit?"

Caleb grunts, sighing aloud.

"Listen, Shirley," he said to the victim. "Don't repeat what you said to anyone."

Shirley looked like he had a heart attack.

"Why?" he questioned.

A blunt Johnny answered, "Because no one wants to believe that a sea dragon murdered your dad in cold blood."

Nessa nods as she gives Brooke her massive backpack.

"Yeah," she agreed. "And since everything is closed down, you're better off staying at home."

"Whoa!" exclaimed Shirley. "Didn't your parents teach you to do the right thing and tell the truth?"

The children trade irritated looks at each other.

Even though their parents taught them right from wrong, Brooke, Caleb, Nessa, and Johnny often lie, cheat, and steal to achieve their goals.

They couldn't care less about responsibility—let alone save an ignorant community from a terrifying sea monster.

But the only reason the kids want to save the town is that they wanted their former instructor to find closure.

Approaching the guy, Caleb calmly looks at him and said something that made him wet his pants.

"Listen, Shirley," the Latino says frank tone. "In my neighborhood, those who snitched get their brains blown out."

"So, if you tell a living soul that there is a sea dragon on the loose, there is a 100% chance that you might get killed."

Brooke, who stood beside her menacing boyfriend, glowered at a spooked Shirley. 

"Do you understand what he is saying?" she asks impatiently. "If you open your mouth, you will put a lot of innocent lives in danger."

Shirley backed away from the teenage misfits and quickly bobbed his head.

"Good." Nessa smiled coldly. "Now, get lost."

Promptly, Shirley gets up from the floor and ran away. As soon as he left, the kids calmly took out their Berettas, Glocks, revolvers, and pistols.

"Okay." Johnny sighs eventually. "Let's find the thing and kill it before someone else gets hurt."

*      *     *     *
Despite the warning signs, the children stood on the wooden docks, waiting for the sea beast to appear.

The fog hovered the cold water; the odorless wind blew in the kids' faces, but it didn't faze them.

Johnny, Brooke, and Caleb took turns monitoring the suspicious water while Nessa read a book about the sea monster.

"Hey, guys," she called. "According to this book, the sea dragon comes up from the water to find food."

Johnny unsheaths his sword, gripping the black hilt with his two bare hands.

Dark brown eyes penetrated through the thick fog as the teenage ronin move towards the young girl.

"That's pretty interesting," he remarked. "But does that book tell you how to kill it?"

Nessa sadly shakes her head no.

"Nah," she replied. "But it says that sea dragons are often considered to be shy and docile creatures."

A skeptical Caleb Wolfe reloads his twin Berettas.

"Shy and docile?" he scoffed. "What fucking bullshit."

Brooke agrees, uncoiling her bullwhip.

"If they were such nice creatures," she starts to say. "then why does it attack a town full of bigots?"

Getting up from the wooden floor, Nessa stretched her arms and tucked the book inside her deep purple backpack.

"I don't know why this sea dragon monster would attack Lovecraft Creek." Nessa finally admits.

"But since our leads are complete shit, I hope someone would tell us more about the sea monster."

Not understanding what she is implying, Brooke squints her eyes at a nonchalant Nessa Phoenix.

"Do you think Triton is going to tell us more about the monster?"

Nessa bobs her head in reply. "Of course he is."

"How do you know that?" Brooke inquired.

"Telling a traumatic event isn't a walk in the park, Nessa. Hell, I don't even think he's ready to trust us."

Caleb awkwardly chews his bottom lip.

He tries to come up with a sentence to ease his girlfriend's troubles, but all he can do is watch the shallow waters unfold in front of his eyes.

So far, there were no signs of the sea creature.

Johnny found a smooth pebble lying on the sand and flung it across the water. It skipped along the wet surface, leaving behind a trail of large ripples.

Whoa." Brooke awed. "That's pretty cool."

A jealous Caleb snatches the pebble and threw it at the water—only to watch it sink into the murky underworld.

Nessa snickers, "Nice throw."

"Oh shut up." Caleb spat. "Let me try again."

He threw another pebble in the water, but the salty liquid devours it again.

"Aw," he growled. "Jesus Christ!"

Feeling bad for his comrade, Johnny lowers his sword, picks up the smooth rock off of the sand, and teaches Caleb and the girls how to skip it across the water.

Skipping rocks had nothing to do with the mission; but even so, it helps the children keep their minds off of the monster.

Their weapons plopped on wooden planks as the children pelt the quiet water with tiny boulders found on the shore. 

But when Nessa chucked one into the water, bubbles begin to appear on the surface.

An unseeable force loomed towards the children until Johnny caught a glimpse of golden eyes glaring up at him.

Tossing the stones in the damp sand, he alerted his friends to pick up their weapons and run.

Acquiring their firearms, the teens stepped on it.

Sneakers slapped on the rickety floor; sea salt and dead fish cloud their nostrils as the children finally made it to shore.

Unfortunately for our antiheroes, the sea dragon emerged from the water. Its golden eyes were full of searing hate while it emits a blood-curdling scream from its lips.

"Shit." Nessa groaned. "And I thought the Kraken was a nightmare."

A solemn Brooke grips her left fist around the handle of her bullwhip. "Let's take it down before we become fish food."