He Will Eat Your Darkness

The summer felt sour from the beginning. Rancid, thick, depressive air hung over me.

Chase broke up with me in May—and started dating my ex-best friend, Molly, the next day. I bombed my SATs. And beach plans with my friends came to a screeching halt with Mom’s declaration.

“We need a break, Linds,” she said. “A girls’ trip.”

I rolled my eyes and began my well-constructed arguments against the idea, but she insisted.

“Baby girl, it’s our last summer together. I need you. And, believe it or not, you need me.”

She twirled her blonde locks around her finger—the way she always did to shut me up. I could never win this argument, so I might as well get used to the idea. Mom panicked when she found Chase’s condoms in my dresser drawer, and I barely eked out a C minus in AP Geography. She fawned over me and kept asking me to “talk to her.” I was grounded more than I breathed teenage freedom.

One night, I heard her whispering on the phone with my PopPop. “Lindsay is headed toward a world of trouble, Dad,” she said. “I think we need a summer at the lake.”

I crept back into my room so she wouldn’t catch me eavesdropping.

God, if she had found my pot stash, I’d be dead, I thought.

But I was about to go into my senior year of high school, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend an entire summer in a gross, musty upstate lakehouse with my mom.

We left the day after school let out. I was pissed because I’d miss Bryan Campbell’s Summer Blowout Bonfire over the weekend—it was a Wilde Lake High rite of passage. My popularity—already on shaky ground—would suffer a gut punch with my social absence.

Mom’s old Volvo clunked its way over highways. It carved a sloppy swath on the mountain passes. I pressed my head against the grimy passenger window and folded my arms. I wanted Mom to understand what an awful idea the trip was—I should’ve told her how much I loved her instead. Looking back now, I see an ungrateful, spoiled brat. So much can change in three short months.

The further we climbed from civilization, the more anxious I became. Three hours into our journey, gray clouds choked out the sun and remained our weather for much of the summer.

“Oh, look how quaint and beautiful!” Mom exclaimed, pointing out quaint towns and old-fashioned gas stations.

“Yeah, beautiful,” I barked. “Looks like Deliverance meets Cabin Fever.”

She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and weighted her reply.

“Lindsay Michaela Ford,” she glanced at me with her disappointed scowl. “I should’ve brought you up here years ago. When your dad first left us, the summer we stayed with PopPop and Baba? If I had my crap together, I would've taken us to Ice Lake, instead. I should have seen how much you needed the lake then, and I’m not gonna let this opportunity slip away from us now.”

Her words, meant to buoy me, raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

We arrived at dusk, the Volvo crunching dirt like some kind of Yeti as we slowed on the winding, sloped driveway. I noticed the silence before anything else.

“You sure we have neighbors up here, Mom?” I laughed.

She smiled and shook her head at my insolence. I peered up at the house and swore it was staring back at me.

***

Despite my initial fears of a creepy, haunted house, a weight lifted from my shoulders in those first few days. We had a large deck at our disposal—the lake started below the deck and melted off the edges of the earth. I had never seen anything so breathtaking. And, unlike our dimly lit cottage back home, the lakehouse bathed in light.

‘Turns out we did have neighbors, too. Pretty cool ones, right next door. Quiet, dark, and beautiful Alex and gregarious, sturdy, and gorgeous Alec Stone were twins and my age.

“We know. Our parents are cheesy and lame,” they told me in unison after introducing themselves.

After that, the three of us went everywhere together. The “As”, as I referred to them, showed me around town and we spent daylight hours with their friends down by the lake. They tried to bribe me to swim with them in Ice Lake’s murky waters, but I refused. Mom used to say she was surprised I wasn’t born with gills. But, I like my water flowing and with a discernible bottom. Lakes creep me out. One can never tell how far they reach, or what hideous creatures may float below.

Mom seemed lighter too. She started spending all of her free time hanging out with Mr. Stone—a widower and a “Silver Fox” if I’ve ever seen one. He was cool, so I didn’t mind. Besides, it gave me free rein to roam where I wanted with the twins.

By the second week, though, a familiar lurch returned to my gut. Alec and I sat down by the lake alone one night. Sparks lit between us, and I thought maybe we’d kiss. Our legs dangled over the edge of the dock, and Alec asked me to share my “hopes and dreams.” I was freezing and a dock plank dug into my leg—I didn’t want to move for fear of ruining the moment, but I didn’t want to get “real and vulnerable” either. I wanted our tongues to tangle.

I laughed off the storm of questions, and Alec grew quiet.

“What about your fears?” he asked as he pulled me closer. “I can see them swimming behind your eyes.”

I am a professional deflector, so I threw the questions back at him, and flipped my hoodie up to cover my warming face. He told me he didn’t have any fears or any struggles.

“After my mom died,” he continued, clearing his throat, “I was a mess. Fights at school, drunk all the time—an all-around douche, I guess. And then, my dad moved us up here. Alex and I kicked and screamed against it. But we figured it out. He will eat your darkness. You’ll see.”

A boulder appeared in my throat.

What the hell was he talking about? He will eat your darkness?

I didn’t ask—I didn’t want to know.

I stared ahead and noticed a faint golden glow emanating from the far side of Ice Lake. The fireflies lighting up the sky flitted away, leaving us in darkness—save the weird glow in the distance.

***

I kept to myself after that night. I’d spend my days at Espresso Yourself, the hipster coffee shop on the outskirts of town where I was always the lone customer. I’d grab one of the free Stephen King books the shop offers patrons to read—a bit on-the-nose for Ice Lake, but I could become engrossed and time melted away. My cell never gained more than one bar, so although I tried calling my friends back home, I never connected. I timed my departure for the shop around the “As” schedules—I’d make sure they’d left for the day.

One day, Alec spotted me and called me over in his booming voice. He sounded threatening, underneath his forced sunniness. The townspeople sucked the sun from the sky and siphoned it into their overwhelming personalities. I felt like a timid rabbit, trapped by her predator.

I begged off from a distance and didn’t stop running until I hit the shop. Mikey, the gauged-ear, messy-haired, taciturn barista met me at the door and then locked it behind me. He flipped off the neon “open” sign and grabbed my hand. Mikey led me to the dry storage room behind the kitchen.

“You okay?” he asked.

Between panted breaths, I asked him why I wouldn’t be fine, and he laughed, pointing to my sweat-soaked tee shirt.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about this town, Lindsay,” he said. “Living in town requires a lot more than a mortgage.”

Someone pounded on the front door. “We don’t have a lot of time. Just, whatever you do…stay away from the Stone twins. And stay away from the lake. You can hang out here all you want.”

Mikey jogged to the door and opened it to a sudden crowd of sunny people. I was starting to hate the forced sunny nature of my summer neighbors. I slipped out the back as Mikey tended to his newfound patrons, and spent the afternoon hiking the hill trails beyond the town.

I crept back into the lakehouse through the deck and found a note from my mom:

Linds,

Where have you been? ‘Going to a summer festival at the lake with the Stones. You should come! 8:00. Wear a dress.

Love,

Mom

***

I wish I could say what happened that night made sense. I wish I could say I got there in time to save my mom. I wish I could time travel back to junior year—be a better kid. Stop worrying my mom about my “darkness.”

I remembered Mikey’s admonition about the lake and the Stones, but I needed to understand. I changed into a black hoodie and pants, and my gut told me to stuff my backpack with clothes. A deep, black night consumed the constant gray of day, and I snuck out at 8:30. My earlier walks had given me access to a trail hidden above the Festival, so I crouched through the switchback trail and made a spot in the trees.

The glow I’d noticed with Alec had grown. It consumed the lake. A hooded, black-cloaked and masked group of about a hundred townspeople stood in the shallows.

What in the actual fu—

A loud voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Mary Ford, are you ready to give Him your darkness?”

Shit. My mom wades to the center of the group and takes off her mask. When she removes her hood, the lake's glow bounces off her hair, and looks like an ominous halo.

“I am,” she says. “For me. For my daughter.”

“And you will commit to staying in Ice Lake?” the voice asked—Kyle Stone, my mom’s new boyfriend.

I made a mental note to stick to Jane Austen novels moving forward--no more Stephen King. My legs shook as I tried to comprehend what was happening. A wind whipped around me, blowing leaves and dust. I wiped my eyes to see my mom standing in the center of the pulsating, yellow glow. An enormous shape rose from behind her. Its silhouette looked like a multi-armed dragon with antlers.

The shadow opened a gaping, unhinged jaw and swallowed my mom. I stifled back a scream as a guttural roar emerged from the shape. Plumes of dark clouds rose behind the dragon-thing, and it spit my mom back into the lake.

I could hear her cackle as the crowd applauded. Kyle Stone called another name as I backed up the trail. I ran to the coffee shop—the only place I felt I’d be safe.

Mikey was closing up as I arrived. Between sobs, I rambled, but he managed to piece it all together. “You’re staying with me tonight,” he said. “I live outside of town—they can’t get you there.”

Mikey and I stayed up all night, planning our escape. He told me to grieve my mom—she was an impostor now. In the dusty pink of dawn, I finally closed my eyes.

***

I woke up an hour ago. Mikey isn't here, and his apartment is trashed. His car is gone, and I don’t know what to do. I stumble to the kitchen and find a note on the table.

Hey Lindsay!

I just need to grab a few things from the shop, and then we’re off—

My heart plunges to my knees. His words trail, and underneath, written in red, choppy letters:

You’re not going anywhere, Lindsay.

Don’t worry—he will eat your darkness!