Chapter 177

• Beth stood naked at the doorway to wave goodbye to Chrissy, her friend from college who'd come up for a visit for the summer before heading back to college for her last fall semester. It had been a few months since Beth's ordeal and she did everything she could to keep the creature from her mind going so far as to ignoring its summons. She'd also done all that she could to keep Christina from the lake as much as possible out of fear that the creature would take her down as well.
• The creature eventually seemed to respect her privacy as he did not invade her thoughts any further outside of the occasional inquiries. Its lily pad/solar collectors still floated out in the middle of the pond, giving the creature it's much needed nutrients. She rarely dared to go down to the water's edge.
• She tried to ignore the creature's existence by going on with her life. But thus far all she managed to do was land a part time waitressing job at the tavern in the nearby town. Even that job had hours that were few and far between to the point of it being on-call work. Her applications to be a Marine Biologist at dozens of schools, research facilities, and aquariums had all been turned down with more rejection letters coming in weekly. It was all very frustrating.