Chapter 6 Summary: Lizzy's Viewpoint on August 19, 2019

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Summary

After a ten-hour drive from Louisiana, Lizzy arrives at her cabin outside Asheville, North Carolina. The house, which she bought and renovated a decade ago, is a small, sparsely furnished retreat with monster-movie posters and a bookshelf full of folklore and anthropology texts. She finds a note from her part-time assistant, Frances, listing pending requests: a conference, a guest lecture, an article deadline, and repeated calls from Brian Mando, the producer of Monsters Among Us, who wants to pitch her a solo show. Lizzy texts Frances, saying she has a new lead on an old monster and asks her to tell Brian she's away on a hunt with no cell service. She then repacks for a trip to Chickering Island, hoping to arrive before noon the next day.

Lizzy pulls out a thick research file containing years of notes on missing girls. She recalls how her investigation began in 2002 while looking into Pig Man sightings in Upstate New York. A sheriff told her about Nadia Hill, a girl who disappeared after claiming to meet the Pig Man on a full moon. Lizzy shared the story on her podcast and blog, and soon received a cryptic email from a user named MNSTRGRL, who taunted her: Took you long enough to catch on, sister. The email bounced back, but it sparked a deep dive into similar cases. She discovered a pattern: teenage girls vanishing on full moons after claiming to have encountered local monsters—Jennifer Rothchild in 1988, Vanessa Morales in 1991, Sandra Novotny in 1993, Anna Larson in 1998, and Nadia Hill in 2001. Lizzy visited each town, interviewed locals, and searched the woods, but found no trace of the girls or any physical evidence. She never went to the authorities, fearing they'd dismiss her as a monster-hunting crank and because she didn't want law enforcement digging into her own past.

Over the years, MNSTRGRL continued to send taunting emails, sometimes quoting from a childhood Book of Monsters and asking if Lizzy had figured out the truth. The most recent email, from three months ago, asked about the cat-and-mouse game and who was hunter versus hunted. Lizzy decides the sister she believes is responsible for these disappearances is in Vermont, and she's determined to stop her. She calls her brother Eric, who now goes by Charlie. He tries to talk her out of going, insisting she's seeing patterns that aren't there and that it's been over forty years. Lizzy insists she can feel that her sister is alive and responsible. She tells him she's going to Vermont to stop her. Charlie pleads with her to come stay with his family instead, but Lizzy says she'll visit after she's done in Vermont, then hangs up before he can remind her to call him Charlie.

Key Events

Lizzy returns home from Louisiana and repacks for a trip to Chickering Island.
She reads Frances's note about Brian Mando's repeated calls and other professional obligations.
She texts Frances, telling her to say she's away on a hunt and unavailable.
She reviews her research file on missing girls, recalling the Pig Man case and the email from MNSTRGRL.
She identifies a pattern of five girls disappearing on full moons after claiming to have met monsters.
She decides to go to Vermont, believing her sister is the one taking the girls.
She calls her brother Eric (Charlie) and tells him her plan; he tries to dissuade her, but she hangs up.

Character Development

Lizzy emerges as a deeply isolated and obsessive figure. Her home is a shrine to her work—monster posters, her own book, and a cardboard cutout from her TV appearance—yet she admits that the person she's closest to is her paid assistant. She reflects that meaningful connections feel like acting, a sentiment that echoes her discomfort in front of cameras. Her research file is a testament to years of chasing a pattern she can't prove, and she acknowledges she's never found solid evidence of any monster. Despite this, she's convinced her sister is responsible for the disappearances, and her determination to go to Vermont feels both heroic and reckless. Her call to Eric reveals a vulnerable side: she longs to confess, but also knows he won't understand. She still thinks of him as