The Dark Lake

So over there is the Clayton House. You may have noticed that it's in kind of an odd location. On that island which is just big enough for it and nothing else. If you live there, then you pretty much need a boat to go anywhere.

Or if you don't have a boat, then you have to be able to swim, but the lake is fairly wide.

Anyway, it was built over a hundred years ago and nobody remembers exactly why the Claytons wanted it there. Some negative people like to say that it's because the Claytons hated leaving their house. Some more positive people claim that it's because the Claytons loved swimming. I don't know, but most people agree that one day, a member of the Clayton family, a little girl fell into the lake and drowned. Understandably, the Claytons moved away after that and the house has been deserted ever since.

Am I afraid of the house?

Well, I might be the wrong person to ask.

The reason for that goes back to when I was fourteen and just starting Rosedale High School. I learned that the school was dominated by a club of girls who called themselves the Rosedale Roses. The leader of the Roses was a Senior named Karen. When Karen walked through the halls everyone paid attention. Nobody wanted to become her enemy, but somehow I did.

It was in the cafeteria on the third or fourth day of school. She and some members of her posse came up to me and she said, "Your name is Samantha, right?"

"Yes," I said, wondering how she had learned that.

"Well, I was wondering if you planned to go out for the swim team."

Swim team? Of all the things she could have asked me. "No, not that. But I am looking forward to joining other club at this school. Like maybe that literary magazine. I hear they sometimes print Horror stories which is cool because they wouldn't let us print Horror stories in the Middle School literary mag-"

"Shut up about that," said Karen. "I want you to join the swim team. What's the matter? Don't you know how to swim?" And she gave me a malevolent smile which convinced me that she already knew the answer to that somehow.

"Actually, I know that you can't. See my friend, Julie?" She tapped another girl on the shoulder. '"Well, her friend's little sister was in the same swim class as you. And she told us how you were the only one who failed the test because you were too scared to put your head in the water. What a loser!"

Wow. that swim class was actually eight years ago. I decided to just get away from them, but I knew that High School was going to miserable.

Still, it got worse.

I guess it was the next day that I happened to meet another Freshman named Jill. We were in the school library and she said to me. "Hey are you the girl that wants to write Horror stories for the Literary magazine?"

"How would you know about that?"

Jill seemed to get a little embarrassed. "Well, I was in the cafeteria yesterday and. . ."

Oh Well, I guess that was better then having her remember me as the girl who couldn't swim.

"Anyway," Jill went on, "that's really cool. Everyone in my family and most of my friends think that Horror stories are too weird."

She paused and looked at me for a minute.

"Have you ever been to the Clayton House?"

And that's where I first learned most of what I told you about it. She finished by saying. "I keep thinking it might be fun to sneak out there at night. But I don't want to do it alone. " She smiled at me nervously. "Don't get the wrong idea. I would just stand near the edge of the lake and see if we could spot any ghosts. We wouldn't actually try to go to the island."

We? Okay that sounded like a bad idea. But I also couldn't help liking it. It sounded exciting, not to mention it might just give me a new friend. Before I knew what happened, I had agreed to meet her at eight o'clock next Friday night.

So when Friday night rolled around I was nervous, but also real excited and Jill seemed to feel the same way. But it was a full moon night and we both crept to the Lake and that's when I first saw the Clayton house standing on the island in the pale moonlight.

I had barely a split second to think about it before a voice called out, "Well, Well. Look who's here." It was Karen and she was coming out of the shadows with several of the Roses.

"I'm in, right?" called out Jill. "You promised that I could join the Roses if I just brought her here."

"Not quite," said Karen. "She's still dry."

I didn't like the sound of this. I tried to run away, but a few of the girls blocked me to the left and a few more blocked me to the right. "Go on, Jill," said Karen. "You want to join the Roses, give her a push or maybe you'd rather just go in instead."

Jill looked at me sadly, but she backed me to the edge of the dock. For one long minute, I tried to believe that this wasn't real. That IO would somehow escape from this place and not go into the water. But in the next minute, she gave me a push and I tumbled into the water.

It was terrible. I was sinking. There was water all around me and I wondered if I would die. Then, it got worse. I felt something wrap around my leg. I looked down and saw that it was a tentacle grabbing me by the foot and pulling me deeper to the bottom.

Naturally, I was terrified. I couldn't breathe and I felt pressure building against my ears. Between, that and the empty feeling in my lungs, I thought that I would explode.

But when I got to the bottom of the lake, I saw what had been pulling me. Surprisingly, it actually looked like a little girl with pale white skin. Her clothes were sort of old-fashioned looking like something from an old photograph. But the strangest thing about her was the fact that she had a ring of long tentacles around her head..

"Well," she said. I was astonished that she could speak under water, but the sound came out of her mouth in a cloud of bubbles which somehow carried her voice to me. "You should be more careful,."

I wanted to point it out that it wasn't my fault, but I wasn't going to risk opening my mouth.

"If you want to get out of this, I suggest you swim said the girl and the tentacle released me.

But I can't, I wanted to yell. Or could I? I began moving my arms and kicking my legs. And it felt good. Not only did each stroke move me closer to the surface, but I felt that with each stroke a new strength was entering my body. And not just in my arms and legs, but my whole being if that makes sense.

When I finally put my head above water and saw the dock, I felt like a different person.

:"How are you doing?" called out a voice.

It was Karen. She and the other Roses were still standing on the dock.

"I'm fine," I said easily pulling myself onto the dock.

Karen was clearly disappointed to see me healthy, but she didn't have time to think about it because suddenly two tentacles came out of the lake. Everyone screamed but me.

Karen screamed loudest of all. Except maybe for Jill. Because one of the tentacles wrapped around each of them and pulled them into the lake.

At that point, all the other Roses turned around ran away from the place.

I stayed a little bit longer and stared at the lake which was now oddly calm and peaceful. I thought that it was not such a frightening place. At least not right now.

So no, I'm not afraid of the lake. In fact, I'm not afraid of anything in water. You know, I ended up joining the swim team. I didn't win any medals, but--except for the Literary magazine which I edited Senior year, it was my favorite extracurricular activity.


I said I'm not afraid of the lake. On the other hand, the bodies of Karen and Jill were found not long afterwards floating in the shallow part of the lake. Oddly they didn't look like they had drowned, but rather like they had been chewed to death by something with big teeth.

So while I'm not afraid of the lake, I think other people should be.

1.495 words