"The camera broke," Barbara said bitterly, turning to stare out at the beautiful waters. "I have nothing but whales and some humanity stories on the people of the island. It might keep me in a job. Maybe."
Charles snorted. "I'm never doing anything like that ever again." He'd retrieved a comb, and now he was drawing it obsessively through his still flat hair. "Not ever. I need a vacation. Might never go back."
Barbara glanced at him. He'd lost a lot of his usual speech patterns since the eel attack. It was nice for her since that meant she didn't have to try to translate everything in her head, but it kind of lost something that made Charles, well, Charles. She turned back to stare at the water. "It's almost like it never happened."
Charles' comb stilled. "You think it's dead? That it's all over?"
Barbara shook her head. "Oh, it's not dead. It might be over for this island, maybe, but that thing, whatever it was, is still out there. Somewhere. Most likely, it will turn up on some other island to prey on those poor fools."
She sighed. There was still so much left unanswered! Why had the Lucy creature taken Clipper? Where had it taken the dog? What did the lighthouse have to do with any of it? How had it gotten the tv to show that weird documentary-style show about the lighthouse hanging? And who was that poor soul who died? She'd almost suspected it to be Tim or Lucy, so who else could it have been? The creature hadn't seemed to like the light, so maybe it was the lighthouse keeper in an attempt to stop the lighthouse? So many questions and she would probably never learn the answers to any of them.
"So, what do you think?"
"Hmm? What?" Barbara said, turning back to Charles.
"I said," Charles repeated, "we should go into business together! The three of us! We could hunt down and film supernatural creatures. Even ghosts! We could be like... the Creature Hunters or something! Ghosts, goblins, ghouls, and galore! It could be a big hit! And if we can't get them on film, we could make like a fake documentary pretending like it's all fake but actually drawing from real-life things! It could all be very supernatural."
Barbara rolled her eyes. "Get a life, Charles. Who would watch that? No one would ever watch a show about a few people trying to chase down ghosts or other supernatural creatures." She looked out over the water. "It would have been fun, though... until we all died."
Her bag bumped against her leg, and she felt something hard. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the jar of eel oil she'd bought off the trader to make him talk. She stared at it for a long moment. Then stood and flung it as hard and far as she could out into the sea. It was still out there. Somewhere. And she was determined to never lay eyes on it ever again.