The Lake (Part One)A Story by Natasha Be careful who you turn your back on. She’s swimming. Heart pounding, she’s gasping for air. Her head begins to bob under the water. Struggling to keep her head up, she cries out for help. She begins to panic and tries to float on her back. Her ears slightly under the water, she begins to hear noises beneath the surface. Awful, gut wrenching screams and war cries overwhelm her. Something glides across her legs, something slimy. Tears stream down her face and mix in with the fresh water of the lake. She looks up into the sky and whispers to herself, “I knew you were coming. I always did love you...” Just then something catches her foot and drags her under. Her cries fade into gargling echoes as her body is engulfed by the dark waters. . . . Jessabelle woke up, her bed soaked with sweat. She wiped her face and looked at her hands. They were smeared with tears and left over mascara from the night before. She figured she must have had a nightmare. A really bad one. Her best friend appeared in the doorway. They lived in a small apartment together, only a half a mile from a lake. “Wow, what the hell happened to you last night?” Annika asked her with a confused look on her face. “Nightmare,” Jess said with fear in her eyes. Annika looked around and back to Jessabelle. “Well, let’s go to the lake tonight? We will have a great time and invite some others, get your mind off of it,” She suggested. Jessabelle agreed to the invite. She needed a night out with her friends. She loves the lake. It’s an iridescent blue with a hint of green. Woods surround it perfectly. No one ever goes there anymore, so it’s their own personal area. The water is so clear that you can see perfectly when under it. It’s always warm at the touch. It’s perfect, or so it seems. As the evening arrives, Jessabelle and Annika put on their bikinis, grab some towels and beer, and head out the door. They live within walking distance of the lake, so it didn’t take long for them to get there. Everyone was already there and they cheered, being tipsy, for them. Some of their friends were in the lake, yelling for them to join in on the fun. Jess watched as Annika jumped in the water with no hesitation, but she lingered along the edge of the lake, watching everyone enjoy themselves. As she looks down into the water at the reflection of the moonlight bouncing off the waves, her mind wanders off to a clear, horrifying memory at this very lake when she was only thirteen. I race Zander down to the lake. He was a little faster than me, but sometimes he would slow down and pretend that I was actually beating him. Without even stopping, he jumps into the lake like a cannon ball. I didn’t jump, though. I am too scared to jump in because I can’t swim well. I slow to a stop when I get to the edge and stand there, holding myself. “What are you waiting for? Jump!” He yells for me. “Zander, you know I don’t swim well. I can’t just jump in,” I whimper. He begs me to get in the water, so I finally slide in and hold onto the edge. I watch my toes wiggle under the clear water. When I look up, Zander is right in front of me. He grabs my hand and pulls me out away from the edge. I start squirming and struggling to keep my head above the water, my feet tread the water as fast as they can. He finally lets me hold onto his shoulders, so I could catch my breath. “You’re such a baby,” he laughs. “No I’m not. I just can’t swim well and you know that,” I say, getting irritated. “You need to learn to swim so you can actually hang out with the rest of us,” he smirks. I get mad and push off of him. “I’m leaving. You’re such a jerk,” I dog paddle back to the edge of the lake and lift myself out of the water. Tears stream down my face, but he doesn’t notice because I had gone under water before getting out. “Jessabelle, don’t leave. I was just kidding,” he calls me back. I grab my towel and start to walk away. I can’t believe he said those things to me when he knows I can’t swim well. He is my best friend after all, he knows everything about me. Now he’s just being a jerk to be funny. I ignore him and keep walking into the woods. “Jess! Come on, we’re best friends, don’t leave. I was just joking around with you! Stop being like that!” I can hear him still yelling for me, but I don’t wanna go back. He’ll come to my house tomorrow and apologize and that’s when I’ll hang out with him again. Whatever. After I get home, my mom asks me what I’m doing home so early because she knew I was with Zander at the lake. “I don’t want to hang out with him today. He’s a jerk,” I grunt as I walk past her to my room. She doesn’t say anything, just rolls her eyes and smiles because I do this all the time. After awhile of watching T.V., I fall asleep and dream about being able to swim like Zander and the other kids. I dream about this a lot because it would make life easier. The other kids bully me about not being able to swim well and Zander usually sticks up for me, but sometimes he pokes fun at it. It’s not fair, but nobody has time to teach me. My mom rushes in my room and shakes me awake, “Jess! Wake up. Do you know where Zander is?” “No? What are you talking about? He should be at home in bed sleeping like I was! It’s like 6 A.M.” I peek over at the clock. “I am being serious, Jessabelle. He didn’t come home last night after the lake. His mom figured he went to a friend’s house for the night and forgot to call, but he never showed up at home this morning.” “That’s weird, maybe he’s still at his friend’s house,” I try to find things that would make sense as I start to worry. My mom tells me that his parents called all of his friend’s parents, including her, to make sure he was somewhere that she didn’t know about. All of them said that they haven’t seen them. I get up and throw some random clothes on. I run out the door and down to the lake. I stop, dead in my tracks at the edge of the woods. There’s cops everywhere, specialized divers searching the bottom of the lake, ambulance there and ready in case they find a body. Gasping, I immediately start crying. He’s dead, I’m thinking. My thoughts are so wild and my eyes are filled so high with tears that my vision is blurry and disfigured. I don’t even notice when a cop comes up to me, asking me if I knew Zander and if I was with him. I tell the cops everything that happened yesterday through sobs. They tell me they haven’t found a body, so he might still be alive. “Might”. The word isn’t straight forward, so it doesn’t make me feel any better. A couple hours later the final report comes to the news. It’s a picture of Zander and a description of him and his last whereabouts. “Zander Joseph Evans, a 13 year old boy last seen wearing green swim trunks at the local lake, is officially reported missing…” © 2017 NatashaAuthor's Note
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