“Breaking news: A body has been found in the woods outside the town of Lancaster over the weekend. The county coroner has noted the cause to be what looks like an animal attack.
Sources say there have been sightings of ‘wolf-like’ creatures found in the area that may or may not be responsible, according to investigators. This is the third unsolved case of this nature that has been reported in the region.”
***
ELIZA TUGGED at the zipper of her wind poncho in an attempt to cover her exposed skin. The wind was getting more fierce and it was still raining, but her network manager believed that rain added to the ‘drama’ of a broadcast. Drama? What kind of ‘drama’ could there possibly be from covering a livestock contest?
Of course, Eliza would never challenge her boss’s choices to his face. Jim was a well-respected man in their town and, in fact, could be regarded as the biggest local celebrity. Jim used to work as an anchor in a major Los Angeles broadcasting station, but had chosen to return to Birkbridge and start his own broadcasting company. They had started off small but had managed to accumulate a decent following of loyal viewers and had therefore been able to expand into a full-fledged TV and radio station.
Under Jim’s influence, Eliza had lived for a long time in a state of bedazzlement. After all, she had, once upon a time, fallen in love with the world of Jim’s creation. Jim and his television station – Birkbridge NewsLine – had brought some sense of excitement to the otherwise boring little town. The problem was that, after five years of working for the man, she’d learned to see through the sparkly shades of spectacle. Once the illusion had shattered, the outcome was quite depressing; Eliza was, once more, living in the real world.
For people like Eliza’s boyfriend, Andrew Freelander, ‘normal’ was not synonymous with boring. He was a man of simple pleasures and routine; he enjoyed his black coffee in the mornings and his beers in the evenings. Every other day, he went to shoot some pool at the local pub with his friends and colleagues from the weapons factory. Sometimes Eliza joined, sometimes she didn’t. She didn’t plan ahead most of the time, because she didn’t want her entire life to be dominated by routine. Thanks to Jim, she felt as if her life might change for a while and become at least a little less monotonous. However, after many years, Eliza’s new and ‘exciting’ life became its own routine.
***
And at the moment, she stood in front of a farm, reporting on an upcoming livestock show in the pouring rain. Yippidy yay.
“And now, reporting from the Birkbridge countryside farm: a soaked and very cold cow!” Eliza shouted into the camera.
Oliver, the cameraman, rolled his eyes. “Thank God we’re not filming live television!” he yelled at her through the roaring wind. “And I don’t see any cows around here, but I’m so bloody tired of not doing my job today that I might just be hallucinating!”
The wind was finally dying down and Oliver was pointing his camera at Eliza again. “None of that “cow” nonsense this time, Eliza! The people of this town are paying good money to get their news from a real human woman.”
“You make a good point.” Eliza smiled. Oliver was a good sport; he was the only British person in Birkbridge, and he certainly knew how to have a good bit of banter. Eliza decided to cut him some slack and snap into work mode; she knew that the rain might start again in a few seconds so they needed to get the shot right then and there.
“This is Eliza Zachary, reporting from the soon-to-be Birkbridge livestock fair. As you can see, preparations are under way for the upcoming festivities…”
Whenever she did stories like this, Eliza couldn’t help but wonder what it would’ve been like if she’d accepted the job offer in Boston. The job had initially seemed way beyond her reach, but her father had pulled some strings with a few of his contacts at the news station and managed to convince Eliza to apply. To her amazement, she had been immediately accepted for the role of an on-site broadcasting journalist. Pursuing the job in Boston would have allowed Eliza to do what she’d always wanted and follow in the footsteps of her father. Granted, she wouldn’t be on any real battlefront, but she would still be in the position to make history with her news stories. However, taking the job in Boston would also have prevented her from continuing her happy life with Andrew, her loving, loyal boyfriend.
Andrew and Eliza first met in their first year of college and had been inseparable ever since. She believed that Andrew was the only person, other than her dad, who she could truly be herself around. Although they didn’t exactly have an instant connection, Eliza and Andrew grew close in a very natural way, and their relationship developed with ease. Before starting her first year of Media Studies, Eliza had promised herself that she would make an effort to interact with other people. College was meant to be the best time of her life, and Eliza wasn’t about to let her insecurities get in the way of that. With some life coaching and advice from her dad and some styling tips from her mom, Eliza had fashioned her very own alter ego with which she would face the world head-on.
***
Through thick and thin, Eliza’s father had always been her rock. Her mother, Jeanette, was always supportive, but she was sometimes a bit too fussy for Eliza to truly confide in her.
While growing up, Eliza had known her father as two men: the brave, effortlessly cool man who yelled over the sound of gunfire from the television screen, and the reserved, gentle man who tucked her into bed every night. Of course, the television Martin looked a lot different, since Eliza watched all his broadcasts as old recordings. By the time she was born, Martin had given up his career and settled down in Birkbridge to raise his family. He became a local historian, pursuing lengthy and in-depth projects relating to the foundational elements of Birkbridge life. These revolved around the three main industries in the town: coalmining, farming and manufacturing guns. His new book required him to research the inner workings of the Millstone Firearms factory, and he could often be found hanging out in the area, talking to some of the workers. Some of the workers didn’t mind him, but others would sneer at him and ask him condescending questions. “Have you ever tried using Google, old man? You know we don’t have all day to chat with you about your picture books.”
Despite his seemingly old-fashioned methods and even though he was a bit of a social outcast, Martin was still unbelievably charming. Perhaps it was due to his immaculately well-preserved good looks, or maybe because of his patience and open-minded listening skills, but Martin’s investigative projects usually bore fantastic results. He often took on paid projects for some extra cash. Sometimes, locals would hire him to investigate and produce their family trees. In other cases, his clients were people who wanted him to find anecdotes or even write entire biographies for their dead relatives’ funerals. One thing was for sure; his clients were never disappointed.
***
Going along with her father’s suggestion, Eliza joined the drama club and after five months, Eliza had had a decent amount of interaction with the club’s one and only groupie; a cute senior named Andrew. At first, she was a little annoyed with his tendency to hang around and watch their practices. Eliza was new to this scene and still felt a bit self-conscious, particularly around people who weren’t even part of the theater group. For this reason, Andrew’s casual presence had frustrated her a little bit. Who was this guy? Didn’t he have anything better to do?
The first time that Eliza found herself alone with Andrew, she had been unexpectedly upfront with him. She was usually shy around guys, but she found him so annoying that her frustration managed to surpass her bashfulness. Although sarcasm hadn’t been part of her repertoire at the time, Eliza’s first conversation with Andrew was loaded with it.
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” she’d said with a cheeky grin on her face. “You must’ve been real busy lately.”
Andrew had been at their practices every single day that week, so he laughed at her ironic insinuations that he had no life. And, as it turned out, Andrew had liked Eliza’s direct approach to conversation. Due to her former friendlessness, Eliza hadn’t really learned how to engage in small talk and empty chitchat; she was an all-or-nothing kind of girl. Andrew, as an attractive college senior, had become accustomed to empty, flirtatious interactions with the opposite sex. However, Andrew was a self-proclaimed monogamist and he quickly tired of the attention overload. Throughout college, he’d been looking to settle down, but to his dismay, all the co-eds seemed the same to him; he never found anyone amongst his groupies who really challenged him the right way. So Andrew became a groupie himself and started hanging out with the drama club. As he explained to Eliza, he was looking to find some truth in the fiction of theater. Eliza had rolled her eyes and called him a cheeseball. Then they exchanged looks, Eliza’s mouth twisting into a crooked smile, and they both burst into laughter.
Andrew had been persistent, and had won Eliza over within two weeks. They’d hang out after the theater club practices, and their private meetings had escalated. At first, they met up in cafés, then bars, and eventually, Andrew’s apartment. Quickly, Eliza and Andrew became in sync with one another, and there was no awkwardness in discussing their plans for the future. After she completed her sophomore year, Andrew asked Eliza to move in with him, and she gladly accepted.
Andrew had graduated three years earlier than Eliza and immediately got a job at Millstone Firearms. After five years his responsibilities had increased immensely. Despite his reputation for being late to almost everything, Andrew was nothing but exceptional at what he did, in fact, ever since Andrew received his promotion to junior head of sales, Millstone Firearms had managed to out-sell their competitors by ten percent annually, which meant that they were finally on their way to becoming the most successful firearms manufacturer in the country.
For Eliza, parting with Andrew hadn’t really been an option. Since she hadn’t, in her wildest dreams, expected that the Boston network would actually consider her application, let alone offer her a job, Eliza had been completely befuddled about how to act when she’d received the offer. Deep down, she had already known that Andrew would not be willing to give up his job and leave Birkbridge, and she also realized that he simply wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pace of life in the east coast. After all, the only things that kept Andrew’s absent-mindedness at bay were his routines and habits, but he was completely unable to adjust to changes in his schedule.
Nevertheless, Eliza had had a tiny speckle of hope when she confronted Andrew about her job offer. He had been incredibly sweet, kissing Eliza and telling her that he was so proud of her; after all, what were the odds for getting such an incredible job offer straight-out-of-college? However, the fantasy wasn’t meant to last. After lengthy conversations over breakfast, dinner and weekend pillow talk, Andrew and Eliza eventually came to the sad yet inevitable conclusion that the move to Boston wasn’t going to pan out. They both knew that Andrew had worked incredibly hard to achieve his current company status, and neither of them believed that he should have to start from square one again. They discussed the possibility of Eliza moving on her own, but her fully packed Boston work schedule would ultimately overrule the possibility of her flying out to see Andrew once every few months. For Andrew, given his recent promotion, the chances of taking time for visitation days were also very slim.
***
As Eliza helped Oliver pack up his camera equipment, she told herself that she had no regrets. In actuality, the decision to stay in Birkbridge with Andrew had been a no-brainer. She had been able to get everything she wanted: a loving boyfriend and a job. Granted, this job may not have been a first choice, but it was certainly not a job that anyone in their right mind could complain about.
Arriving home, Eliza checked the time on her phone, 6:29 pm, and in the process discovered several texts from Melissa, one of her three best friends and also, coincidentally, a cousin.
5:30: Done with work, where are you right now?
5:44: Not gonna bother going home first, brought a change of clothes to work so heading to the bar now! Will see you there.
6:08: There’s a hot guy here. Hurry or I’ll go home with him!
6:10: Just kidding but seriously, get here already.
When Eliza walked into Nelly’s, Melissa was sitting at their usual spot. There were a few empty glasses already lined up at the table, but she was still looking relatively sharp. As Eliza knew from experience, Melissa could be trusted to hold her liquor. Even on nights when she consumed triple the doses of her friends, Melissa would always be the last one standing.
Eliza took a seat opposite her friend. “So where’s this dreamy guy? I was almost expecting you to be gone by the time I arrived.”
“All kidding aside, if my vodka-goggles aren’t deceiving me, I think there really is a somewhat hot guy here tonight. He’s at the bar though, so be a doll and check him out for me while you’re up there?”
Eliza rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically, but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Oh, all right then. But only because I love you.”
“You’re the best!” Melissa beamed, giving her friend an overly exaggerated wink. There was something about their weekly girly meet-ups that had spurred the friends to engage in a satirical 80’s-housewife-routine.
Eliza came back from the bar, carrying two cocktails. “So, no sight of Brienne yet. Or has she also wondered off with some mystery man?”
“Yes. She’s finally left boring old Tom and those dreadful kids and found herself a real man,” Melissa responded, without breaking character.
At that moment, Brienne came through the door, dithering about as always. She wiped her feet on the carpet and, spotting the flaw of their seating arrangement, shuffled over to another table and grabbed a chair.
“Hey, sorry I’m so late, what did I miss?”
“Not much. Well, Melissa has spotted someone she thinks is hot, but that’s about it,” Eliza responded matter-of-factly.
“Ah, good, so I didn’t miss anything,” Brienne confirmed, slouching back on her chair and looking calm at last.