The Lake (Part Two)

Be careful who you turn your back on.

“Earth to Jess! What are you waiting for? Get in the water!” Annika calls for her from the lake. She finally slides in the water and at first it feels cold, tiny goosebumps appear rapidly on her body, but then it finally warms up the longer she stays in. A boy she’s friends with from high school, Chase, splashes her and laughs. Her mind forgets about the flashback of her ruined childhood and turns to her friends splashing her. She gasps from water spraying her in the face and her arms flare up to try and block further splashes. Water wars break out within the group and they even play multiple games of ‘Chicken’.

After awhile of playing games, everyone starts to relax by the edge or on floats, drinking beers and talking about their high school and childhood years. Forgetting about Jessabelle’s memory only lasted a short time because everyone else is talking about their past. Now she thinks about hers. The conversation depresses her, so she wanders off from the group further down the lake. She lays on a float and paddles softly with her arms towards darkness. Once she’s far enough from the group that she can barely hear them talk about their active childhood memories together, she stops paddling, lays on her back, and closes her eyes. The sounds of the calm waters gently pushing up against the float relaxes her body. A deep sleep overcomes her as she drifts farther from her friends.

All of a sudden, Jessabelle’s float is flipped and she is flopped over into the water. The second she hits the water, she wakes up in shock. She gasps and her deep intake of breath causes her to swallow and choke on the lake. Her arms flailing around, she finally catches the float and holds onto it, trying to catch her breath while she coughs up more and more water. She crosses her arms on her raft and lays her head down. Minutes pass and she finally calms down. What the hell was that!? The second that she says those words, she hears the water move behind her. Her head pops up fast and her face turns white. Fear instantly shivers down her body. There was no way that could have been a fish because the sound was on the top of the water. She knew her friends were most likely still together talking, not noticing she was even gone, but she calls out for them anyways.

“Annika? Chase? Guys, stop messing with me. You got me, nice job pushing me into the water.” She waits a minute, but nobody answers her. Her eyes, adjusted now to the dark, dart all around the lake, but there was noone around. She calls out again, her voice shaky and high. This time, somebody chuckles. “Heh heh heh”. It was a man’s voice for sure. Her head snaps to the right, where the voice came from, but she doesn’t see anyone. The voice chuckles again and she snaps her head to the left. Noone there.

“Stop! Come out right now and stop messing around with me! Show yourself!” She yells.

“I know you’re still thinking about me. Every night you think about me and how you left me there that day by myself,” the voice says quietly.

“What are you talking about? Who are you?” Jess asks confused and afraid.

“You know exactly who I am. I blame you for what happened to me. You left me there alone because you were mad at me for poking fun at you. I was your best friend. How could you just leave me?”

She instantly starts thinking about the day that she fought with Zander and how she walked away from him at the lake because she was mad at him. Tears fill her eyes. “ I didn’t want anything like this to happen. I was just mad at you for laughing at me. I was only thirteen! You can’t blame me for something like this, Zander. I loved you and you were my best friend, I just wanted you to come apologize to me. Where have you been, though? I thought you were dead. You came up missing and it’s been years,” Jess cries to him.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, Jess. Come back to the lake tomorrow and I’ll show you.” With that, Zander left. He barely made a sound as he slipped back under the water and swam away.

“Zander, wait!” Jess calls back for him, but it’s too late. He’s gone. She treads in the water for a few more minutes, staring into the darkness where her long lost friend was. Then she decides to go back home for the night, since he didn’t come back. Still in shock from seeing him, she gets up out of the water after paddling with her arms back to where her friends were. Jess tells them she is tired and just needs to go to sleep. Annika looks a little confused, but brushes it off. Jess, finally home and in bed, stares at her ceiling, thinking about Zander and what could have possibly happened that caused him to disappear ten years ago and still be alive to this day. She also wonders, why was he in the lake and where is he staying? Her thoughts fade as she falls asleep.

Multiple times through the night, Jess is awoken with nightmares of her past replaying in her mind over and over. New ones mix in with the past from seeing Zander after so long. So many questions that she wants to ask him enter her mind. She only got a couple hours of sleep because she was so eager to go back down to the lake. 9:00 A.M. comes around and Jess is already walking down to the lake. The closer she gets, she starts to hear laughter from kids.

“Hey! Hit the ball over here!” “Jump! Jump!” Kids are yelling and enjoying themselves at the lake. Their voices become louder and more clear. She realizes that Zander would never come out and expose himself with others around. She stops before she gets all the way down to the lake and frowns. Hmph. What am I supposed to do all day now?

Jessabelle arrives back to the apartment where Annika is waiting for her. “Hey, we need groceries. Wanna go shopping with me?” She asks. I think about it and how it will make the day go by a lot faster if she were our doing something. She nods her head and grabs her purse.

Annika had brought a list and was naming off the food items for Jess in the store, but Jess wasn’t paying any attention. She was simply just staring off into space. Annika nudged her and asked if she was even listening. “Huh? Yeah I got it. Eggs, milk, bread, etcetera..”

“Is something wrong? You’ve been acting strange ever since the lake last night,” Says Annika.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just brought back some bad memories, no worries,” Jess played it off as nothing. Annika apologized and went to gather some other groceries.

Jess couldn’t stop thinking about Zander and the lake. The events of the night were set on replay in her mind. So many questions she had to ask him, but she wasn’t sure that he would answer them all. He seemed as though he was very angry at her, which he has the right to be since she left him there alone. She left him there. It was her fault. If only she had stayed with him, but what could she have done? She had no idea what even happened out there in the lake and if something attacked him, how could she have helped him? Neither of them brought cellphones to the lake so they wouldn’t get wet and damaged. But either way, it seems as though he survived, or is Jess seeing some kind of spirit that she dreamt up in sorrow?

She quickly grabs the groceries that Annika told her to get and goes to find her. Once they get all that they need, they check out and leave. Back at home, Jess sits on the couch, just staring at the T.V., but not watching it. Annika notices the way she’s staring into space and wonders what she’s thinking about. Jess has been a little out there since the incident ten years ago, but lately she’s been acting even stranger, as if she seen a ghost. But it was almost as if she had.

After hours of sitting around watching T.V. and thinking about Zander, Jess looks out the window and sees that it’s finally dark. She notices that Annika is no longer around, probably got bored of sitting in the same spot for a long time. Jess finds Annika in her room, reading.

“Hey, I’m going out tonight. I don’t know when I’ll be back yet. Don’t wait up for me!” Jess smiles at her.

“Where you going?” Annika asks.

“Um, I’m going to see my aunt. She wanted to catch up a bit and she said she made desserts. I’m goin to see her and my nieces.”

“Alright, well have fun and be careful. I’ll be up reading awhile if you need anything,” Annika smiles and gets back to reading.

“Thanks!” With that, Jess was out the door and headed straight to the lake. When she gets down there, she doesn’t see anyone. Thank God, no one is here messing around, but where is he? She thinks to herself.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoy this part enough to read on to part three!

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

I liked the conversation at the lake and how her mind is working. I liked the mystery of the missing boy still haunting her. Thank you for sharing the excellent chapter.
Coyote

[Natasha]

I appreciate this!

[Coyote Poetry]

Was my pleasure and I enjoyed the chapter.

[barleygirl]

A brilliantly conceived & written short story. Here are the two strongest things -- (1) the pacing is well done to compel the reader along . . . even tho you use tons of well-described details, it never goes off on word-gush tangents that would slow down the suspenseful pacing -- and (2) good mix of simple sentences with complex sentences, good balance of true-to-life dialogue, revealing your characters in a well-timed way.

[Natasha]

I tried really hard on this story. Took me a little longer than the rest, but thank you!