Edmundson Harbor certainly seemed like a quaint little harbor town, or at least that’s what Elizabeth had thought when she stared out across the bay near her new apartment. A new job and a new start. This was by far the most beautiful town she had lived in so far. The only peculiar thing was that everything seemed to close before sunset, restaurants, bars, everything. Residents made it a point to explain that since the town is so small, they cannot afford to keep business open late. The area did not look as pretty in the moonlight, they had said.

Determined to explore, Elizabeth clipped a leash on her puppy and left her apartment, crossing the road and field directly across the street. The field sloped down into a small marina enclosed by a break wall to keep the water inside, where the docks were, wave free. Together the two walked the length of the wall and waited at its end, watching small sailboats occasionally drift by.

Walking back across the length of the break wall, Elizabeth noticed a small blue crab claw in her path. She froze in her tracks and closed her eyes. Crabs were disgusting. Actually, anything with spindly legs and jagged shells, really. She had had nightmares of creepy, pointy legs crawling all over her like so many giant spiders.

Opening one eye, she saw that the claw looked a bit off. Working up her nerve, Elizabeth bent down to take a closer look. The claw...it appeared to have extra pinchers on it, almost like a...small hand. A chill shot through her. She kicked the misshapen claw into the water and walked straight back to her apartment, though the image of the hand-like claw remained in her mind.

That night, in her bed, Elizabeth tried to sleep. It was quiet outside, save for the occasional breeze whistling through the screened window. Summer was around the corner, and it was warm enough to have a window open but not warm enough to unpack the air conditioner. It was perfect. Elizabeth found herself slowly drifting into sleep until she heard the noise. It sounded like hard, tiny legs skittering over the sidewalk outside her bedroom window.

Elizabeth shot up, eyes wide. The sound had disappeared...or had it even been there to begin with? Lying back down, she closed her eyes. There it was again! Clambering out of bed, she got up and slammed the window shut. If there were crabs outside, could they even crawl through a window?

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Several hours passed as Elizabeth tossed and turned in bed, but sleep would not come. Looking at her clock radio, three AM flashed in dull red digits. There was a whine next to her. Elizabeth turned to find the puppy sitting next to the door. “You have to go out?” she asked. The puppy wagged her tail and scratched at the door, “Fine, not sleeping anyway.”

Putting her shoes on, Elizabeth clipped the leash onto the puppy’s collar and opened the door. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The moon hung brightly overhead. Walking over to the road, the pair followed the sidewalk. Looking around, it seemed like there were a lot of people out for this early in the morning. At least ten people were spaced out, randomly walking in the road, field, on the sidewalk. The person nearest Elizabeth started shambling in her direction. A shiver ran up her spine.

Turning quickly, Elizabeth guided the puppy down the sidewalk the other way. There were even more people in the other direction. Someone hopped the ditch between the road and field, his bare feet sounded wet as they smacked the pavement. He lumbered towards her. Elizabeth reached in her pocket and gripped her keys between her knuckles, ready to punch if he came any closer.

As the man neared, Elizabeth saw his face in the moonlight and recoiled. It looked like he had barnacles growing on his cheek. One eye was small and black, protruding from his eye socket like a lobster’s. The puppy started growling. Pulling her away, Elizabeth stumbled backward and bumped her leg. Turning, she saw a woman squatting. The woman turned, her mouth was vertical and filled with tiny shark-like teeth. What Elizabeth mistook for dark hair started writhing like tentacles.

The sharp scream left Elizabeth’s mouth before she could stop it. Her brain was trying to make sense of what her eyes were seeing. She stumbled into the parking lot. There were more around her, slowly encircling and lumbering towards her with a strange half limping, bow legged gait.

Elizabeth drew her key wielding fist from her pocket. “Stay back!” she yelled impotently. “I’ll fucking kill you!” The words were shaky as they left her mouth. Something swayed towards her between the surrounding people, each step like hard claws skittering over concrete. The rest of the town residents stopped and watched its six crab like legs carry the creature over to the scared woman. The misshapen blue torso had two arms with hand-like claws. Towering above her, the creature looked at her, sea foam dripping from its craggy mouth.

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The next day, a man walked down the rocky shore by the marina until the elevation rose sharply into a wall of rock. Turning into a cracked opening in the shale cliff, the man squeezed in and walked into an opening. A jagged shrine adorned with cockle shells and seaweed lay half an arm, the hand frozen and claw-like, clutched car keys. The man pried the fingers back and pocketed the keys before bowing reverently to the shrine.

Parking Elizabeth's car at his house, the man entered and pulled up a browser. “Looks like we can open this job back up,” he said.