The Monster of Cameron Lake

The sky had finally gone dark, the sun having passed the steep mountains surrounding the lake long ago. We had the fire going since four in the afternoon, the autumn air already creeping through our coats, no match for the coming Canadian winter; even if we were on the coast.

The guys had been manning the fire all afternoon, it paid off because the flames licked high into the night sky and you could almost see the light reflected on the lake, yards away from the circle we had created.

More drinks were being passed around, another was pressed into my hand, and Josh leaned down to ask if I drank beer.

“Well, if there’s nothing else.” I smiled up at him and cracked open the new can.

We sat side by side on the log rolled from the forest, legs tucked close to our chests, the rest of the group did the same, with the exception of Spencer, sprawled out and talking loudly like usual. The rest of the group mostly ignored him, I barely noticed as Josh leaned his shoulder into mine, scooching closer complaining about not having enough space on the log.

“Hey, who's got a scary story?” Henny, an exchange student from Germany asked. “Isn’t that what you guys do around campfires?”

“When we were kids, maybe.” Jacob had his arm around Jessica, another exchange student, different things on his mind.

“But it's Halloween, let's get into the spirit.”

“Spirits!” Spencer was now on the ground and thinking of nothing else but more booze. Teasing laughter went round the circle, and someone began to help him up.

“Yeah maybe no stories, it’s already a little uh-spooky here.” Jessica looked over her shoulder into the tall forest that led to the mountains surrounding us in an abrupt and gaping valley, and leaned further into Jacob.

“Common guys, a little scare never hurt anyone.” Josh glanced my way.

“Jordy! You always told the best stories when we were kids, tell one, tell one!” Everyone looked right at me, imploring.

I had thought my ghost story days were over, highschool not having alot of demand for them. What should I say? I gazed over Cameron Lake, and the firelight licked up to the night sky. Everyone was quiet.

Jessica whispered “What is she doing?”

“Just wait, she's thinking” Jacob sat back, my friends were well used to this.

A tiny wave lapped at the shore, and I turned back to the group.

“Who has heard of the legend of the Ogopogo in Cameron Lake?”

The exchange students all shook their heads, while some of my own friends rolled their eyes.

“That’s not even the right lake! The Ogopogo lives in the Okanagan lake.” Spencer objected.

“But when was the last time it was seen?” Silence.

“It hasn’t been seen there because it has no home. And the Okanagan is filled with boating tourists.” I turned to Henny “You see many of the lakes here are connected, underground, through caverns too deep and too cold to dive in.”

“That’s a lie! There’s no way, the lakes in the interior are so far away, not to mention separated by the ocean.”

“But the ocean holds even worse creatures. Did you know no ones ever found the bottom of this lake, and while it might not make it all the way to the Okanagan, there are channels down there that connect to more lakes nearby, and maybe even the ocean. Which would give the Ogopogo or whatever it is in there, plenty of space to hide.” I looked back into the fire.

“But my story isn’t about the monster in the lake, it’s about what it did to James Hunt. Ten years ago James was in high school, about our age, and he was out one night, camping by the lake. He and his friends had brought plenty of gear because they were going fishing.” I paused and looked around everyone staring at me, waiting.

“You see, people have been reporting since the ’80s of a strange creature, floating to the surface, long and grey, and big. It was around this time that the sightings had become more frequent. Kayakers, and people fishing on the lake seeing the thing floating up to the surface more and more, and one sunny afternoon, someone got a picture.” I pause a minute to pull it up on my phone, a colour saturated, slightly blurry picture of a long grey thing splashing the surface of the waters, of what was clearly the lake behind us.

“I got this picture for a project, I was a little obsessed about finding out more. But I wasn’t the first, James became so interested in the subject it consumed him. He got a few of his friends, all of them amateur fishermen of sorts, and they went out one fall weekend to camp by the lake with the purpose of finding the monster. Now, it was the last night of the trip, and James had yet to come up with a fish longer than his hand. His friends were getting tired of his obsession, told him to give it a rest. The last night of the trip, they were all drinking around the fire and he wanted to go out again. None of them did, they told him not to, of course, he had been drinking, and he knew they wouldn’t let him go. So he waited. They all got very drunk, and fell dead asleep. He snuck back out onto their boat. With his fishing rod, a flashlight and a camera.” I looked out towards the lake.

“He was out there less than an hour when he got his first bite. The line pulled tight and he nearly lost his rod, but somehow he was able to hold on. Not without trouble, the line pulled and pulled, the boat began to move forward, and then the line snapped. He floated further into the lake, swearing at his cheap fishing line. And then he heard a splash-or more like the splitting of the water-as something big headed towards him. His friends said they heard a yell or thought they did, but what they did find was their boat, half sunk and bobbing in the shallows the next morning. Of course, the police raked the lake for a body, but they couldn’t find any. Everyone would have been fine chalking it up to a drunk careless kid if it wasn’t for that missing body.”

I finished, shaking my head, and looked up at the faces lit by the fire.

“And all of you be careful here tonight because you never know when the monster of Cameron lake will get hungry for another soul to drag into the deep icy caverns that lay beneath the water”

I stopped there, my story over, satisfied I had done what I could. But evidently, not everyone thought so.

“That's total bull!” Spencer cried from his seat on the ground “there’s no monster in there, maybe a big fish.” Unconsciously everyone had leaned in closer to each other, and with the end of the story realized, and began to spread out, feigning relaxation.

“Oh shut it Spence, who cares if it was real or not, it scared you, and that’s better than any lake monster, real or not.” A ripple of amusement went around the crowd, but Spence didn’t seem to think so.

“I wasn’t scared, I kept yawning all the way through.”

Jacob rolled his eyes “You always used to do this Spence, with Jordy’s stories, pretend like they didn’t scare you. But you’d always be the one who couldn’t sleep after.”

“Not true, you dick!”

I could see what was happening, everyone was shaking their heads, and laughing at Spencer’s blowhard attitude. But that’s not how he was seeing it. He hated being laughed at, and he was drunk enough to see these reactions like that.

“Well, I’m not scared! I’m not, and I’ll prove it to you all…” here he stood up, unsteadily, and pointed accusingly around the circle.

“Don’t do anything dumb Spence, you’ll just look like an idiot again” I could see Jacob’s attempt to calm Spencer down, was doing the opposite.

We all watched as Spencer shakily went down toward the water.

“Don’t do that Spence! C’mon, you’re drunk.” He only waved his hand up in response.

“I’m not scared of any monster, real or fake. Anyone who agrees will come for a boat ride.”

I stood suddenly, making after him.

“Spencer no! Come back, you’re too drunk to go out on the water.”

“Well if he wants to show off.” Josh had followed me and laid a hand on my arm, stopping me. I looked at him with surprise.

“He might drown if we let him, don’t be petty like a kid. We need to stop him.”

I marched over to Spencer who had by now gotten the oars in the boat and began to push off. I grabbed his arm.

“C’mon Spence let’s go back, you’re too drunk for midnight swimming.”

I could see he wanted to agree with me, he was about to turn back.

“Well it seems like exactly like it used to be, you’re a pussy but you hide behind Jordy. I can tell you’re still scared just like always.” Josh was sneering from behind us, taunting Spencer like he has for years. Spencer’s eyes hardened, he turned and shoved off into the boat. I grabbed at his back, pitched forward, and tumbled into the boat. Sending it further into the lake with us both in it.

“You two enjoy yourselves!” Josh called from the shore.

We scrambled in the boat, recovering from the confusion of being tipped into it.

“We have to go back! We’re going farther out.” I reached for an oar, but he grabbed my hand.

“No! They’ll make fun of me again, let’s stay out here for a few minutes. Just so they don’t think I’m afraid.”

I hesitated for a moment, then relented with a sigh.

“Fine, but we aren’t going out any further.”

He nodded his agreement.

We sat out on the glassy black water, waiting for time to pass. I looked over the edge of the boat and slipped my fingers under the surface of the cold lake.

“Was it real? The story?” Spencer looked almost nervous as he asked, staring out at the water.

I smiled. “Of course, the legend at least. But there hasn’t been a sighting for ten years, maybe people were making it up all along.”

“What about that James kid, how did you come up with that?”

“Oh, James was real. A kid who drowned, drunk, one night out here. My parents used to tell that story to scare me away from late-night drinking and large bodies of water.”

“So you made up the monster part?”

“Who said I did?” I stared right at Spencer, and broke into a smile “know that you have been warned—oh young seeker of danger—do not find yourself late at night on the cold waters of Lake Cameron if you wish to avoid the monster that lurks beneath.”

“Stop, I know you’re making it up but stop.” He laughed weakly.

I sat back and smiled again.

“Let’s go back, what 's it been, ten minutes? That’s long enough.”

“I agree.” He quickly began gathering the oars but one slipped from his hand.

“Ah! I forgot you were drunk, give me that.” I leaned over to grab the oar floating just out of reach. But before my hand touched it, something slick, and long broke the surface the water beside it, pushing it further away.

“Eeek!” My hands covered my mouth and I stumbled back into my seat. Eyes wide I looked at Spencer.

“What?” His face relaxed. “You’re just trying to scare me again, knock it off or I’ll push you in.”

My face didn’t change. “I touched something, something big.”

He laughed, then stopped when I didn’t.

“Well if you’re determined to scare the shit out of me, it isn’t going to work this time.” He began to reach over the boat towards the oar.

“No stop!”

He cried out and stumbled back. Just as something knocked into the boat, and we were flipped into the water. The shock of cold water beat the air out of my chest, the lake rushed into my lungs. I was able to claw my way to the surface, coughing, while I frantically looked for Spencer. He popped up beside me, blue in the face.

“What the fuck was that?”

“I..” before the words left my mouth, a long, grey, eel-like body curved over the surface of the water, not a foot from us. Eel like, except for it being as wide as the boat, and who knows how long.

I screamed, I think Spencer was screaming too. We both turned for the shore when I felt the thick slimy body wrap around mine. The air was pushed from my lungs so my mouth could only open in a silent scream. I lashed out with every inch of my body in the water but it’s grip wouldn’t loosen.

I could hear thrashing in the water only a few meters away, the shouts of our friends seemed far away.

A sudden guttural scream was quickly drowned by the water as the thing dove underneath with Spencer still wrapped up in its coils.

But I was left floating in the icy water.

Authors Note:

Anyone who's reading this I want to say thank you. It blows my mind that there are even just a few people reading my work!