Actors portraying characters: Dr. Charles – John Kapelos, Afonso – Diogo Morgado, Guilherme – Jose Fidalgo

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Female voice opens, "Creation by God, the Big Bang Theory, whatever it is you choose to believe, we can all agree on one thing: our world can be ugly and we have to look deep inside, through the ugliness, to find the beauty beneath."

An elderly man is standing at the bank of a large river, the river in front of him and a tent behind him, his arms are crossed as he stares at the water with a scowl. "Show yourself damn you," he says harshly to the water.

"Professor Lawrence!?" A young man cries out from behind Dr. Charles Lawrence.

Charles turns to see the young Brazilian man come from the lush of green leading back to civilization. "What is it, Afonso?"

Afonso grins as he walks to Charles. "I should ask you the same thing."

Charles turns back to scowl at the water.

"What are you doing, Professor?" Afonso asks in an exhausted manner as he stands next to Charles.

"Waiting, my boy," Charles answers stoically. Then with some irritation in his voice he tells Afonso, "And hoping those Prodigal bastards, or whatever they're called, don't return to take my research."

Afonso sighs. "Sir, all your research was about the Creature after they had killed her."

Charles whips to Afonso, pointing a finger at the young man. "There is no proof that she is dead. They only took her arm." He put his hands on his hips and looked out to the river. "'The Creature from the Black Lagoon' may still be alive."

Afonso chuckles and states his opinion, "That is such a silly name for a monster," he too staring out at the water. "Professor, if the creature is still alive then it would have shown itself by now like it had before those Agents of Shield guys killed it, but it hasn't."

"Not true, Afonso. The creature must be weary of humans after such a traumatic experience; and yet, I must not cease my search, despite the actions of those 'scientists' who dared to call themselves educated men."

Afonso turns back to Charles and asks, "Why is it so important for you to find this thing?"

"If the creature is indeed dead, then what those men were wrong to have done such a tragedy; not because they killed an innocent creature for 'research', but because of the potential evolutionary theories this creature could possess. If we are connected to this…fish-man, then our current theories would be undermined and our understandings forever changed. It's possible we may have actually found the missing link."

"And if it's not half-man?"

Charles chuckles. "Always a man of religion, aren't you, Afonso?"

Afonso smirks.

Charles relaxes and shifts to face his companion. "If this creature is not the missing link, then at least we will have discovered a potential new genus of mammals or homo sapiens. Regardless, its discovery will be groundbreaking, completely reshaping the world."

Afonso whistles and goes to Charles' tent. "That's a bit heavy handed, don't you think?"

"You and I have very different ideas of 'heavy handed'." Charles jokes and follows Afonso into the tent.

Upon entering the tent, Charles sees Afonso packing up his possessions.

Before Charles could question why or protest—

"You need to go back home to America, Professor," said Afonso.

"Yes, I know, but," Charles stops Afonso, "I am staying here for one more week."

Afonso smiles and says, "Good." He puts down the items in his hands and continues to talk to Charles. "My brother, myself, and all of Brazil will miss you."

Charles smirks and asks, "'All of Brazil'?"

Afonso sits on a chair, "Well, all of Portugal, at least."

The two then spent the rest of the evening talking and enjoying whiskey.

Afonso stands from his chair and questions Charles about his letter to his favorite student back in America.

"I will not be writing my final letter to him, instead, I will wait until I arrive back in the states and tell him about my failure here."

"Oh, don't call it a failure, Charles." Another young man comes into the tent.

"It's about time you showed, Guilherme." Charles replies.

Guilherme turns to Afonso, "Are you ready to go, brother?"

"I am," Afonso gives his attention back to Charles. "Are you going back to your hotel tonight?"

"Not tonight, I think I will spend one more night here." Charles looks around the tent fondly.

Guilherme asks Afonso, "So, you convinced him to go back home next week?"

The brothers bump fists.

"Out! Out the both of you!" Charles chases them out of his tent in a mock fashion.

"Will we be seeing you tomorrow for breakfast?" Guilherme questions.

"Yes, regrettably so."

The young men laughed as they proceeded to go back home.

"Goodnight, Professor."

"Goodnight, Charles."

"Goodnight, boys."

Hours later, from the river in front of Charles' tent, a scaly webbed hand arose from the water with elongated nails, bright silver scales, and a dark bluish-gray hue starting at the top of its middle finger going back.

Charles is asleep on his cot in the tent.

The sound of a low gurgling growl awakes Charles.

Charles groans as he slowly comes to reality, he sits up, rubs his eyes, and sees something in his tent. "What on earth!?"

A loud roar comes from the tent and is followed by Charles screaming.