I Thought She Was Real

What all started as a fun end of summer camping trip with friends, turned into a horrifying scene of events that I can still remember in vivid detail.

The day grew on as my friends and I made our way to Lost Lake Campground. I was sitting by the window of the RV that Jacks dad had let us borrow. I gazed outside, watching as the trees sped by. Perplexed and mesmerized, as the trees whisked by in such a blur of detail only to be replaced by more pine trees.

“Hey, how’s it going?” My friend Brittany said as she hovered behind me, shoving my shoulder, knocking me out of a trance. “Uh, it’s going good I guess,” I said. “No silly, I mean aren’t you excited for this trip?” “Oh..yeah! I mean of course I am. I’ve been waiting for this all summer” I said, a moment before we all surged forward as we went over a bump in the road and heard Ryan declare, “Alright we made it to the campsite! Come on guys! Let’s unpack!“

After we had helped unpack, both Ryan and Jack had started setting up the hammocks while Jason had already managed to get a fire going. I hadn’t noticed Talia was unaccounted for until she threw open the RV door wearing a white and blue one piece swimsuit with a green towel slung over her shoulder. “See you unpacker people later! I’m going for a swim!” She said with a sly smile. “Wait! I’ll come too!” I said as Brittney and I raced back to the RV to get our swimsuits on.

I swung the bathroom door open and I could see Brittney standing by the RV door ready to go, through the mirrors reflection on the door. I gasped and almost dropped my phone when she looked at me to ask, “ Well are you ready to go yet?” I stood there gawking at her face. Her eyes were a glazed over milky white and her mouth was formed into an inhumanly large smile spread almost all the way across her face, her teeth were jaggedly triangular and misshapen. She was drooling profusely and looked as if she could take a bite out of my arm and be able to swallow it whole. I shrieked as I turned around to face her, but when I turned around her face was normal. She just looked confused and a little bit concerned. Despite being utterly terrified and at a loss for words I tried to shrug it off by saying that I must’ve just seen a bug or something. Then I grabbed my towel and rushed out the door.

Talia, Brittney and I started on the short trail to the lake. The boys had said that once they had gotten everything set up they would meet us there.

As we were walking through the forest, I thought I saw something through the trees and it felt like something was watching us, but I couldnt be sure.

When my friends and I reached the lake, they both ran in screaming as they jumped from the dock into the black murky water. They both emerged splashing, saying how cold it was and Talia had yelled at me to come join her. I went and sat on the edge of the dock, dipping my toes into the freezing cold water that felt refreshing in the 102 degree weather. Yet, it didn’t change the fact that the water was still utterly cold. In fact it was so cold that the second I dipped my toes in, I felt a shiver go up my spine and I literally thought I was going to go into full body shock mode.

A little while later I decided to walk waist deep into the chilling lake water and Talia had decided to take a break and go suntan for a while so I stayed to keep Brittney company. I was standing waist deep in the lake for no more than five minutes talking to her before I saw someone emerge from the lake about twenty feet in front of us. We both went silent.

It was the back of a women’s head, but she didn’t appear to be moving. Then slowly she started to rise out of the water until she was about waist deep, she rose as she had turned around. It was then that I noticed those same white eyes and that same creepy smile that Brittney had, had back in the RV. It reached out a scaly gray hand with long fingernails and waved at me. It’s body was gray and bumpy looking. It looked as if she had pestering blisters needing to pop all over her upper half. She appeared to have blood dripping down from her mouth instead of drool.

That’s when I had noticed Brittney was facing toward her as well. I reached out my hand to touch her shoulder and in a hushed tone I wispered, “Do you see that, too?” Brittney turned her head slowly around to meet my gaze and she looked exactly like she had in the mirrors reflection..I pulled my hand back and screamed, panicking as I raced to the shore while I envisioned Brittney reaching out to grab my leg, pulling me under along with her to drown me. A slow death that would be.

I ran over to Talia on the beach and she had asked why I was freaking out so much and I started rambling about a lake monster women who took over our friend Brittney. After my rambling she said, “Rachel, what are you talking about?” And I had said,” the monster women it..” she cut me off, “ Rachel it was just us here...we don’t have a friend named Brittney...” her voice trailed off as I looked back at the lake and there was no one. She went on, “I was in the water not long ago, but then it was just you, hanging out in the water by yourself..you were in there for like the past half hour.” I was at a loss for words.

Talia thought it best that we head back to the RV. I’m sure she saw just how shaken up I was. I was definitely in shock, it had all felt so real. Brittney had seemed so real. She had been real.. to me. Right?

On the way back to our campsite, I was walking at a brisk pace, hard for Talia to keep up as I was frantically looking around the woods at our surroundings.

It was almost sunset.

I did not want to be out there any longer than we had to be. Then again was it all some big prank I thought. No...no way, it couldn’t have been. Talia had looked dead serious, if it was a joke she would’ve laughed and Brittney would have been standing in the lake when I turned around.

Ugh! It gave me chills just thinking about it.

After we arrived back at the RV, I headed straight inside, laying down on the couch with my head on one end and feet on the other. I tilted my head back and stared up at the ceiling. Each time I closed my eyes I could envision the lady in the lake, the faces those things had, and the many conversations I had thought I had with a friend.

Jack, Jason, Ryan and Talia all tumbled into the RV. They brought back in the hammocks and all the pots and pans for cooking over the fire. I had no idea what Talia had said to them, but Jack seemed a irritated as he made his way up to the drivers seat and put the key into the ignition reluctantly, turning the RV’s engine on and driving us away from the campground.

Everyone was silent as the RV drove through the campground and rounded the corner onto the highway. I got up on my knees to look back at the lake one last time through the window and regretfully, I saw the women with the creepy face standing next to whom I thought had been my friend Brittney with the same horrifying face. They looked like twins as they were both smiling and waving at me whilst standing waist deep in the lake.

I looked over to my right and Ryan had appeared next to me on the couch, he was staring out the window too. He looked at me and said, “You can see them too, can’t you?” “You can see our friend Brittney?” “No...but I can see our friend Abigail.”

We both looked at each other, terrified. Terrified, about what had happened that day at the lake.

Did we both lose our minds? Or was what we saw real and did it actually happen? Did we really lose two of our friends at the lake with only one of us left to remember them? Thoughts ran amidst in my mind. Then I looked back to the lake and they were gone. Vanished, as if they were all just a figment of my imagination.