Eyes On The Shore

FBI Agent Clear was often first to arrive at the scene. This time however, the worshippers arrived first. They stood hand in hand praying, chanting, and singing in tongues no translators or computers recognized. Though at first there were only a few scattered groups, they made any sort of investigation impossible.

At some point the previous night, a granite statue washed ashore in Montauk Point, New York. It was amphibian in character, almost resembling an oversized frog. Proportionally however, it was built like a human and estimated to weigh several tons. This conclusion was reached after several crews tried removing it with no luck. Tooth-like scales were chiseled all over the body and each had an eye at the point.

Clear had no idea why the hideous thing attracted such an adoring crowd and why it grew day after day despite the frigid cold and snow. He was at the point where he thought his presence on the beach wasn’t useful. Interviewing the participants did nothing as each was more transfixed by the statue than the last. Their constant singing and chanting was audible from miles away.

At night, Clear took to sitting in his van on the beach’s outskirts to examine pictures of the strange monument and record his observations on a legal pad. Photos were the only way he could study the thing as the crowd grew so thick and passionate by that time it was nearly impossible to breach and get a good look for more than a few moments at a time.

It had eyes and teeth everywhere except for where it was supposed to. That was what stuck with Clear.

Getting the people to disperse was impossible- there were simply too many and they had no real reason to displace them. Still, the Bureau ordered Clear to keep a close eye on the situation and report any developments.

Something seemed off about the statue the night Clear studied his most recent photos. He had about two weeks’ worth by then and this was the first time he noticed something different- the granite turned pink. He stared for a long while, doing his best to makes sense of the subtle change. He flipped through previous shots and realized that the change to pink was gradual though minute.

The next morning, the tides receded far past where they’d been previously.

Clear started for the crowd, ready to take his day’s snapshots while he still had early morning daylight.

As he reached the group’s outskirts, they joined in a collective “Wooo” and parted. Clear stayed his ground in the background as they joined hands once more, forming a single file line all the way down the shoreline.

A singular figure stood where the statue once was. At first, all Clear made out were the eyes. They stared off in numerous directions. The creature slowly walked toward the water until it was engulfed in ocean and out of sight.

The crowd cheered the whole time and got even louder as a tsunami formed on the horizon.

Nothing Clear said got them to move. In the end, he didn’t want to either.