There was a tourist trap on the main street running through Octoberfaire. It sat on the edge of the beach, beside the Wharf and its neighboring lot. It seemed like the perfect candidate for our search. Inside, the store was quiet, with only the light musings of a low energy pop song playing through its static-stricken speakers. Kiosks and stands of magazines took up residence in the front parlor. A sign on display illustrated a map of the Wharf and all its attractions: a Ferris wheel, a house of mirrors, and a carousel, all depicted in a vibrant blend of carnival colors.
Cindi pointed towards a beach on the map. "That's where we found it." Right beyond the splintering wood foundations and amusement lot, the beach sat before the bay, splitting the coat like a knife's edge. It was November, so the place was pretty abandoned from what we noticed while getting off at the bus stop. It looked like it'll remain that way all the way through winter too.
We approached the woman behind the counter and asked to see the security cam footage. She didn't let us, saying it would put her in a difficult spot with her boss. So, we tried another place next door. The same thing happened. We tried two more times before finally arriving at another outlet on the other side of the street.
Much like the first, we opened the doors to a cornucopia of paraphernalia and ephemera, the likes of which would put any strip mall out of business. Immediately, we were hit by a wall of musk and pinetree car air fresheners, hanging talismans imbued with an artificial overtone of lemon-scent.
The woman waited behind the counter, sneering, as if she watched us from beyond the storefront like a pair of thieves. Behind her a wall of CCTVs blinked to life. Their screens tore pixel seams through the length of their faces. The black and white cubes hung above her head. She blinked at us along with them, as medusa would with her head of snakes.
"Excuse me miss," I said, "can we borrow your security cameras? We need the footage to find something we lost."
Her animosity did not falter as I hoped the exchange would. I glanced quickly around again. Still no one in the shop. As empty as an abandoned strip mall. No wonder no one was around if this was how she interacted with new customers.
"Hell, not more of you," she said bitterly. More of us?
"More of us?" asked Cindi.
"I already told you kids no." She shook her head. "And now they've sent more of you. Now--before I call the cops--buy something or go away. You kids are like rats. Coming out of the woodwork just to make my job harder." She scoffed and continued, "Well, what the hell is it this time? You're detectives, aren't you? Scientists, then? What fib are you going to try and peddle me this time?"
"Ma'am, did we do something wrong?" I asked.
"Didn't you hear me? There was already a pack of you kids trying to hassle me to let you see that damn footage."
"Wait," Cindi said, shaking her head. "Wait, wait, wait. You're saying someone else came and asked to use your CCTV footage?" I couldn't imagine who would, other than those kids that we ran into on the wharf. What did it mean that they were hunting down footage of that night too? I grabbed Cindi's arm and pulled her away from the counter, out of the woman's earshot.
"Look. Maybe we should try another spot."
"Why? We didn't do anything wrong."
"I know. It just seems like she's in a bad mood. I doubt she would help us if we asked nicely. Besides, if kids were asking around about the same thing, they probably asked a different spot if they could borrow the footage. I say we keep asking around."
"Grow a pair, Monty. We can't just leave because she's being difficult."
The woman raised her voice. "What are the two of you conniving miscreants whispering about?"
"You didn't leave when things got difficult with Dharia," Cindi continued.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
She shook her head. "Never mind. Okay," Cindi whispered. "How do we convince her?"
The woman behind the counter watched us through the corner of her reading glasses, reading us like pulpy schlock window novels. And she did not like what she saw.
I coughed into my fist and whispered, "Let me try something."
Cindi rolled her eyes. "You say that every time."
"Oh, do I?"
She nodded. The woman watched me slip around the aisle towards her and said, "What is it? Thinking of actually buying something?"
"Actually, I have a proposition for you."
"Oh really?"
I nodded and crossed my arms.
"Let us see your CCTV cam footage, and we'll pay the kids who've been bothering you a little visit."
She laughed. "And what makes you think I'll trust you?"
"You can take that chance and let us see some security footage that you probably don't actually care about at all for the chance that we'll deal with your delinquents. Or, we can leave, and who knows when other people will come and bother you again for that info?"
"Are you threatening me, kid?"
"No. I'm telling you I'll go tell them what I saw. So they won't have to bother you again."
"If I didn't want a bunch of kids to see it the first time, then I don't want them kids to see it at all!" Behind her, one of the screens flashed to life. It showed the pier rocking with the waves. Another TV showed the sky. Just the sky. And a couple others too.
"Ma'am. Why do you have so many security cameras?"
She glanced away, avoiding me. Her body language told me she was putting up walls, becoming guarded. Her lips thinned and her eyes wandered.
"You're watching out for something," I said.
"You don't know that," she snapped.
"Maybe not. But I know that a tourist trap like this place doesn't need this many security cameras working overtime during the November break. Let alone during the off season."
"They're for thieves."
"Like you're getting a lot of those recently. We've been checking around the other shops. Not many people are looking to buy novelty mugs and t-shirts in late Autumn. Besides, why are those cameras staring directly at the sky?"
She pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled. I had a way in.
"You remember those strange lights in the sky the other night?"
"The ones that lit up the city?"
"Yup, those specters. Well, what if I told you kids that weren't the first time they've been hanging over our town. You seem like some curious kids, I bet you've been curious about that too."
"Wait. You've seen them before?"
She nodded. "Folks thought I was crazy. They were wrong," she laughed. "Oh they were wrong."
"What if I told you we found something suspicious on the beach that night?" Her eyes lit with newfound intrigue. "We think we found something connected to the lightshows the other night. Maybe even to the AADs too."
"You're talking nonsense, boy."
"Nope. I think you believe me."
She still seemed hesitant. "There have been lights like those in the night sky for years now. At first, I thought they were just airplanes, weather balloons, stars, whatever you want to think of as an excuse." She changed the footage of one of the larger TVs behind her to reveal the night sky. We could barely see the stars. "Folks don't notice it 'cause there ain't many places along the bay that get such a view of the city." S00he pointed to a spot on the screen. A vague light blinked in and out, then suddenly vanished just as quickly.
"What do you think it is?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Either aliens or some sort of government conspiracy."
"Isn't it always one of the two?" Cindi asked.
I said, "Last time I checked, aliens weren't real. So I'd go with the latter."
"So, you believe me?" asked the woman.
"Sure," I said. "Of course I do. With all that's been happening, I don't see why I wouldn't suspect something else has been going on." The footage rippled. Below the moon, another light blinked to life.
The woman walked right back into the shop with the security footage cartridge in her hand. While Cindi and I waited patiently for her to put it into one of the TVs behind the counter, we wandered around the aisles for it to register.
Cindi held up a t-shirt that said, "I Went to Octoberfaire and All I Got Was a Lousy T-Shirt." I showed her a mug with the image of Lady Arete wearing the same shirt. I searched around another rack of items for anything of note. Down by the base of a sparse rack of mugs, a trash can sat full of broken ceramic. Lady Arete's many solemn faces were hidden beneath blindfolds, broken and discarded.
When we heard the footage start to play, we gathered around the front counter to watch. We saw the beach as it was on that very night. The waves glistened under moonlight. A few figures could be made out in the foggy blackness.
"There. That's us," I said. I pointed to the two figures by the water.
"And those must be Lynn's group," Cindi said.
"Yup. It's those kids," the woman said. "Those were the ones who came into my store and harassed me. They look like they're giving the two of you a tough time too."
"That's one way to put it," Cindi said. "Of course, it was nothing we couldn't handle."
"Last I remembered, you were the one to turn tail first," I taunted.
"Pfffft," Cindi said, "I just know when to cut my losses. No point in playing a game without a full team."
"That's for sure," I said.
"Hold on," the woman said, "what is that?"
The blackbox. It glowed like a glass vial filled with fireflies, erratic, almost alive. It glowed far more than what I remembered.
"What is it?" The woman said.
"That's what we're looking for," I said. "It's connected."
"We suspect it's connected to the lightshows because we watched it fall into the bay and float to shore."
"Looks like some sort of alien technology."
"Or just technology," I said. "Unlikely aliens."
"You never know," Cindi said.
"I'm pretty sure."
"Shhhhh," shushed the woman.
"Why didn't you check this footage before? I would have thought you'd check all your cameras after witnessing an anomaly like the lightshow," Cindi asked.
"It's too low of an angle. All the cameras I checked were pointed up toward the lights," she said. "Why would I have wanted to check the footage of the beach?"
Cindi shrugged, content with her explanation. We watched the older high schoolers chase us off the beach, all the way from the start to when Lynn confronted us. The last point I could remember. Cindi too. We watched our brawl with Lynn until the blackbox started to glow brighter, more volatile. It was practically blinding now, until eventually the footage started to tear. Then, it cut.
"Damn it," I said. "We didn't get to see what happened."
"Try starting the tape from the beginning," Cindi said. "From when we first encountered Lynn's gang."
The woman rewound the footage to when we first found the box, as it drifted to shore. On the wharf, we noticed that among the group of kids, one wore a baseball cap with a high school logo on it. It was their leader, the guy who was goading Lynn to take the box from us. We couldn't see them very well in the dark, but now we have this footage, we could make out the school he was from.
"He's from Easttown High," Cindi said. She turned to me. "I may know someone who could give us an ID on this guy."
"Great! Who?"
She cringed. "A jackass."