unfortunate ➸ primeval

Chapter 11

"There was nothing at the swimming pool," Stephen said down the phone to Nick. He was driving Clara home as well, as he said it was on the way. "The anomaly closed and the creature left no trail."

"As I suspected," Cutter mumbled. "Alright, I'll keep you updated. I'm at the Home Office with Claudia and Lester now. Hopefully this anomaly will not open again." He hung up.

"Do you think it will?" Clara asked Stephen. "Open again?"

Stephen shook his head, thinking. "Probably," he sighed eventually. "But I try not to think about that too much."

Curiosity was burning inside Clara, and she knew she needed to act on it before she chickened our. "What Connor said earlier," she started slowly. Stephen hummed to show he was listening while concentrating on the road. "If you don't mind me asking: what is your type?"

"My type?" He echoed.

"Of girl," Clara winced at how pathetic she sounded. Hopefully Stephen wouldn't see right through her.

"Oh," he said. "That. Well, I usually go for someone who's intelligent, and reasonably interested in the field of work I do."

"Catching dinosaurs?" Clara smirked. Stephen laughed dryly.

"You know what I mean," he sighed. "I think I have a thing for dark eyes as well," he added. "I like it when you stare into them so long that you become lost."

"Oh," Clara considered. "Well, I'm sure Alison fits all those categories."

Stephen spoke so quiet that Clara didn't even hear him. "No, she doesn't."

——

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

"Nick, do you know how early it is?" Clara groaned down the phone to her boss.

"It's half past eight, Clara," he chuckled. "You should have been up an hour and a half ago."

"Oops," Clara murmured.

"Anyway," Cutter continued. "I need you to come down to the reservoir. They found the remains of the boy who was eaten at the swimming pool."

"How have his remains travelled twenty miles from where he was eaten?" Clara frowned, hurriedly getting ready.

"It's hard to explain, but I think the anomalies have a fixed path that they can move along," he explained. "And this one is doing just that. I'll see you in fifteen minutes." He hung up, leaving a half-asleep Clara to pull on her clothes alone.

Twenty minutes later, Clara arrived at the reservoir. She approached Nick, her arms wide as though she was proud of herself. "Right, I'm here - what do you want me to do?"

Before Cutter could answer, however, Connor's shouts were echoing across the water. "Professor! Professor!"

"Uh, I want you to come with me," Nick said, pulling Clara along with him to go and meet Connor. "Connor, what is it?"

"This reservoir is land-locked, right?" He asked.

"Yeah," Cutter nodded, eager to discover what Connor had found.

"So the water should stay at one level, considering the rainfall levels," Connor continued. Cutter nodded. Connor pulled up the stick he was holding and pointed to a red band of tape that was wrapped around the stick near the top. "I marked this as water level an hour ago." He prodded the stick into the water, and both Cutter and Clara gazed as the stick hit the bottom much before the red tape. "The water level has fallen forty centimetres since then. This isn't a reservoir anymore, it's a tidal lake!"

"The water must be flowing out through the anomaly," Cutter grinned triumphantly. Stephen jogged over to join them, curious as to what was going on. "It's still out there somewhere."

——

"Here you go," Stephen handed Clara a styrofoam cup of hot chocolate as he perched on a wooden box next to where she was sat.

"Thanks," Clara said, taking the cup and drinking. She didn't look at Stephen; she was watching the water instead.

"What are you thinking about?" His voice cut through the silence. Clara finally turned to look at him. He was watching her closely, his own cup of tea held close to his face.

"Helen," she admitted after a moment.

"Helen?" He repeated, distaste underlying his tone. "Why?"

"I'm wondering if she's really down there," she sighed. "Through the anomaly. Alive. You said you saw her, Cutter said he saw her—"

"Cutter's seen her?" Stephen interrupted. Clara let out a groan. "When?"

"A few days ago, a week maybe," Clara shrugged. "It's not important. I want to know if she's alive."

"Stephen!" Nick ran over to them, stopping short a few feet away. "Come with me, we're going for a dive."

"What?" Stephen frowned, standing up anyway.

"The steam on the water, it's telling us exactly where the anomaly is," Cutter explained, gesturing to the sparkling blue water. Clara squinted; she could see the translucent steam rising steadily from the water. "We're going to look for it." He ran back to Claudia.

"Watch my tea," Stephen told Clara, handing her his cup before following Nick.

She watched as the men got the boats ready, and Stephen and Nick emerged from a nearby building dressed in wetsuits. Clara smirked, standing up and walking over to where Claudia stood, shaking her head at Cutter.

"I suppose there's no point in telling you not to go with them," she raised her eyebrows. Nick smiled, dumping his things in the boat.

"I want to see this for myself," he replied simply. "Don't worry about me."

"I'm not worried about you," Claudia retorted. "Just all the paperwork I'll have to fill out if you drown." Cutter shook his head fondly and she walked away.

"Nick," Clara called, and he turned to face her. "Be careful down there. I don't want to find your regurgitated remains anywhere."

"I'll be fine," he promised. He clambered into the boat.

"Are you not going to ask me to be careful?" Stephen asked, feigning hurt.

"Cutter's more valuable than you are," she winked. She then leaned closer, so only he could hear her. "But you look better in a wetsuit."

Stephen breathed a laugh before retreating back into the boat. Clara watched as they got prepared for their dive, the boats speeding away to Cutter's co-ordinates. The moment they fell back into the steamy water, Clara stood with Claudia.

"Do you think the creature is still down there?" Claudia asked her, worry evident in her voice. Clara suppressed a smile; she could tell that Claudia had a little thing for Nick. And, if her suspicions were correct, then Claudia's feelings were mutual.

"It's possible," Clara shrugged. "Then again, it could have already gone back through the anomaly. You can just never tell."

"Hm," Claudia hummed. "That's what worries me."