Misty Water Hollow

Courtney heard the splashing sound and spun around just in time to see a ripple effect spreading out from the middle of the deep, murky water. It was getting dark but she could have sworn she saw a rowing boat moving slowly away from her.

“Toby! Here, boy,” she called, but there was no sign of her caramel-colored Golden Retriever.

“Toby!” she called, louder this time, trying to keep the hysteria out of her voice. Instinctively, she pulled her cell phone from her coat pocket and scrolled through her recent phone calls.

“Rick. It’s me. Listen, I’m down at the lake and something strange just happened. I think I saw something. Out on the lake.”

Rick said he was up at the house, a short walk away, and reassuringly told her that he would come down right away. Courtney decided to retrace her steps to try and find Toby, calling him constantly, but she was getting more and more concerned the longer time went on. The pine needles and other woodland detritus were thick underfoot and made for slow progress. Where the hell was he? It was unlike him to wander off, he was such an obedient dog.

Fall was her favorite time of the year but today, she wished it were high summer. She was spooked by Toby running off and not returning when she called him. Maybe he’d found a rabbit or something. She tried to think of any number of reasons why he hadn’t come bounding through the forest towards her, his big, pink tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth and his soft, furry ears flapping as he gamboled along.

She heard branches cracking and swore she saw something in the distance. Somebody or something moving, swinging. She wasn’t sure what. She stood perfectly still, her chest rising and falling as she tried not to panic, fear gripping her chest like a vice. Her breathing became labored as she felt her spine tingling and her feet became rooted to the spot. Perhaps it was kids playing in the woods making a camp or collecting firewood. It was Halloween, so there were bound to be some shenanigans going on in the woods tonight. She thrust her hands deep into her coat pockets and continued calling out.

“Toby! Here, boy!” she bellowed, as loud as she could. “Come on boy, it’s time to go. Here, Toby! Good boy!”

She took her cell phone from her pocket and hit re-dial but there was no reply. Rick’s cell went straight to voicemail. Damn. Where the hell was he?

Witches had been known to make these woods their ritual gathering places, where items, animals, and even, so folklore had it, humans were sacrificed in the name of mystical rites. Dusk was turning rapidly into night and Courtney activated the torch on her phone. It was good to see clearly in a beam of light directly ahead of her, but the darkness all around her seemed to swallow her up.

This was crazy; she had lived near the lake since she was a child. She knew every nook and cranny of the shoreline and had spent many happy times swimming in the clear, fresh water over the years. She and Rick often went skinny dipping of an evening in the warmer weather, bringing some chilled beers and the small gas stove to cook burgers on. She felt the same about the woods surrounding the lake; old wives' tales about witches had never bothered her. But tonight, she was scared.

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks. She could hear splashing again; it must be coming from far out on the lake. She was starting to feel really cold now and pulled the zipper of her quilted coat up tight in an attempt to keep out the chill air. Crazy thoughts were spinning through her mind about what had happened to Toby and she decided to head back up the hill home to try and find Rick. As she took one last look through the trees towards the lake, she noticed lights like a runway, on the small jetty that she and Rick had jumped off so many times over the years.

Rick had been part of the gang of kids who played here every summer vacation. He was the tall, dark, moody one and they had been attracted to each other early on until eventually, what had started out as a teenage romance, blossomed into true love and they had married, both aged just seventeen. That was over fifteen years ago and they were still as happy now as they were back then. The only thing that had clouded their relationship was not being able to have children. The last round of fertility treatment had completely wiped them out financially and they had decided, regrettably, that it would be their last time of trying. They had had their last roll of the dice. Rick had taken it far worse than she had and was severely depressed. He wouldn’t consider adoption or fostering; he wanted to have a baby with his childhood sweetheart. Nothing else would come close.

When he and Courtney took over Misty Water Hollow gas station and store, he was happy to work all the hours God sent. Recently, things had slowed down, real slow and money was tighter than ever. He had even allowed Courtney to take a part-time job at the local school where she had got involved in counseling troubled teenagers. One teenage boy, in particular, had been having a rough time and Courtney had befriended him to help him through a difficult situation. She really shouldn't have left her laptop open with confidential information for Rick to see.

Before they had taken over the gas station and store after his Dad died, Rick and Courtney both worked separate jobs, she as a health care practitioner and he as a truck driver. Their joint incomes had been sufficient but when Rick's Mom generously handed over the business that she and his Dad had run successfully for many years, he and Courtney had jumped at the chance. They enjoyed working together and made a great team. Rick had never been happier.

“Rick! Is that you?” Courtney hollered, scrabbling down the steep incline grabbing overhanging branches as she went, trying to keep her balance as she made her way through the trees toward the lake. He was still a romantic fool and sometimes he would light candles and place them all along the sides of the wooden jetty. Recently, he scattered rose petals too for their fifteenth wedding anniversary, culminating in a mouth-watering barbecue with steak, ice-cold beers, and a mountain of chocolate for dessert. They had sat for hours wrapped in a blanket watching the still waters, hearing the occasional splash or ripple from afar, listening to the Coyotes barking and the owls hooting. It was a magical place, a special place; it was their place.

As Courtney reached the bottom of the steep slope and made her way tentatively towards the jetty, her torch died. “Damn!” Trying her best to reactivate it, she gave up and slid the phone back into her coat pocket and decided to head to the jetty to grab one of the lights. She stumbled a couple of times in the darkness and could only just make out the lake ahead of her, its eerie, dark surface taunting her, tempting her to slip into it so that it could wrap itself around her as it had done so many times before. There was a mist rising from parts of the foggy waters and she called out into the dank, darkness once more, “Rick! Where are you?!” desperately trying to keep the hysteria from her voice.

The force of the blow knocked her clean off her feet and she fell forward straight into the lake. Panicking, she kicked and thrashed around, dazed, confused, cold and frightened. Then she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, squeezing her tightly.

“Thank God!” she thought, Rick had found her at last. She stopped thrashing around and felt safe in his arms, as she always did. But instead of rising towards the surface as she had expected, she was being dragged further and further from the shore and deeper and deeper down into the icy water. Her lungs were burning and she desperately wanted to scream out, “Help! Help!” but she couldn’t. She fought with all her might, kicking and flailing her arms with as much strength as she could muster until eventually, she fought no more.

#

Two days later, police divers recovered the bodies of Rick and Courtney Blakeford, both aged 32. A police spokesman said that foul play was not suspected and it looked like a terrible accident, but that the investigation was still ongoing. The couple's pet Golden Retriever was also found, drowned.

In what police believe to be an unrelated incident, a young teenage boy from the local school was found hanged in the woods nearby. Police are treating his death as suicide.

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All names and place names are fictitious and have been created from the author's imagination.