Welcome to Hidden Lakes

DING! The convenience store bell chimes as Tess shuffles towards the abandoned street corner. Her pitted eyes dart back and forth. Shaking, her feeble hands tightly grip two large paper grocery bags. The pitter-patter of her heartbeat matches the rapid tapping of her foot. She stares uneasily at the crosswalk sign, anticipating the change. A haunting chill slithers up her spine. Whipping her head side to side, she checks over both shoulders.

Swiveling down the winding road, her beaten-up 2001 Ford Taurus sputters. On her right is a forest so lush and thick you cannot walk in a straight line through it. To her left, vast, empty miles of open water run wild. Dense fog tumbles off the lake and coils over the road. Rustling leaves mingle with the mist as it seeps into the forest. She zips past a faded wooden sign that reads Welcome to Hidden Lakes.

In the distance, the cabin she has not set foot in since summer after Senior year lies in wait. She takes a deep breath. As she pulls into the long driveway, a concerto of grasshoppers and gravel sings outside the window. Suddenly, a glaring light appears in the rearview mirror. Headlights.

Pressure collapses in on her chest, and a high-pitched ringing eats at her eardrums. Headlights inch closer as she struggles with the garage door clicker. Frantically she presses the button over and over again. It does not work.

Desperately, she leaps out of the car and manually punches in the numbers. 8-3-9-1. Slowly, the door begins to rise. Feasting on her nail beds, her pupils dilate as she focuses on the looming car.

After a painstakingly long trek upward, the garage door CLINKS into place. Tess floors it, jolting the car forward. Swinging the car door open, she practically falls onto the pin pad and forcefully punctures the numbers 8-3-9-1 again. The garage whirs and hums as it moseys its way to the ground, locking her inside.

Holding her breath, she listens for the car to pass the cabin. The rumble of gravel hitting the undercarriage of the approaching car climaxes. Her heart rate spirals out of control, and her temperature spikes. Finally, the car fades into the distance. Tess gasps for air. Heaving, she manages to take a shallow, pinched breath.

Scrambling, she stumbles inside towards the kitchen table. Vigorously shaking her duffle bag, she empties its contents. Pill bottles rattle as they hit the scuffed up floor. She dumps several pills into her hand and raises them to her quivering lips. Her chest rising and falling rapidly, she reconsiders.

Unscrewing the cap once again, she empties her handful into the bottle, leaving one pill in her hand. Like smooth bourbon, the pill slides down her throat, and she relaxes.

Wrapped in a fluffy blanket, Tess props herself up on a pile of pillows and opens her laptop. A worn bandaid covers her laptop camera. Clacking keys type the words conspiracy theories into the YouTube search bar. Nibbling on Red Vines, she scrolls through pages of videos she has already watched.

Suddenly, a twig snaps outside the window. Tess cranes her neck towards the sound. Her blood pressure spikes. She leans forward but cannot quite see. The bed creaks as she carefully stands.

Tiptoeing towards the window, she can feel her heart thumping in her throat. Tess timidly scans the lakefront. The wind howls like a siren. A clearing in the dense fog exposes the serene ripples in the lake.

Hypnotic ripples lull her focused scan of the tree line into a trance-like state. Glazed over, her gaze turns to a soft focus on the outside world. She succumbs to the silence.

An acute knifelike ring slices through the silence. She jumps and lets out a yelp. Her phone lights up and reads Incoming Call from Dad. Clutching her chest, she takes a breath and rolls her eyes.

“Hi."

"You missed our call."

"I was driving."

"So, you made it there? Are you okay? I think getting out of the city for a while will be good for you."

Tess anxiously shakes her leg and reaches for her cigarettes. She massages her temples and places a cigarette between her lips.

"I'm fine."

Tess lights her cigarette.

"I hope you sleep a bit better there. Are you still having nightmares?"

"You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine."

"It's my job to worry.”

She glances at the pill bottle taunting her from her bedside table.

"Look, I gotta go."

"Call me tomorrow. I love you."

Taking a long, deep drag, Tess hangs up and reaches for the bottle. Carefully, she plops a pill into the palm of her hand. Squeezing her eyes shut, she swallows the capsule.

Swatting at mosquitoes, Tess watches the sunset melt into the murky lake. A gaggle of geese flies overhead, squawking loudly. Taking a final puff of her cigarette, Tess shivers as a cold gust of wind raises the hair on her arms. She scans the sun-drenched horizon, breathing in the crisp air.

Across the lake, a contorted dark figure mysteriously appears on the shore.

Tess freezes. Alert, she squints. Her eyelashes flutter as she tries to make out the details. The shadowy figure does not move. It just watches.

Fumbling for her phone her breathing quickens. She opens her camera and zooms in across the lake. Her camera scans the shoreline.

The dark figure is gone.

Tess rubs her tired eyes and hurries inside. She slams the back door shut and double locks it.

She cocks her head as she notices something strange. By the handle is a large crack in the wooden frame. Bending down to get a better look, she glides her finger across the fractured gash.

Pacing in front of the door, Tess gnaws at her hangnails and presses her phone to her ear.

"The crack is by the lock on my back door. I just want to make sure it is secure."

Across the lake, the sinister figure reappears.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tess catches a glimpse of the shadowy creature. Right as her gaze meets the figure, she hears a shrill squeal!

Tess gasps. Steam billows from the shrieking tea kettle on the stove.

"Huh? Yes, sorry. That works. Thank you."

Ending the call, she removes the tea kettle from the heat.

By the time she rushes back to the door, the figure is nowhere in sight.

The room begins to spin. Tess shrinks into a ball on the floor, trying to catch her breath. Everything seems hazy.

Desperately, she pulls her pill bottle out of her sweatshirt pocket and pops two into her mouth. Then a third.

Wobbling, she makes her way to the couch and chugs a full glass of water. Her eyes flutter shut as she breathes heavily. She drifts into a coma-like slumber.

CREAK!

Her eyes snap open at the sound of a floorboard creaking. It is now pitch black outside. The cabin is dark, except for the sliver of silver moonlight shimmering off the lake and through the back door. Eyes adjusting to the dark, she sits up.

"Hello?"

Silence.

"Is someone here?"

Panicking, she turns on her phone flashlight. She sweeps the light across the room but does not see anything out of the ordinary.

She scampers towards the kitchen and grabs the sharpest knife she can find. It is not that sharp.

"I have a knife."

More silence.

She wanders through the house, thoroughly checking each room and double-checking all the locks. Each room proves to be empty.

"It's just an old house," she tells herself.

Tess rattles her nearly empty pill bottle and pops another pill.

"Shit."

Tossing and turning in her bed, she struggles to rest. Images of the twisted shadowy figure are seared into her eyelids. The night proves more and more difficult as she endlessly flips from side to side. Slowly, the twilight transforms into dusty yellow sun dancing on her covers.

Rushing water fills the bathtub as Tess's bathroom fills with steam. Droopy-eyed, she aimlessly stares at her reflection in the water.

She sinks beneath the bathwater.

As the water ripples above her, she relaxes. She watches the watery world above her as air bubbles float to the surface.

As her body lie submerged in warm water, the shadowy creature creeps into sight and looms over her. Tess's eyes widen as she shoots out of the water gasping for air.

At the same time, she bolts up from her deep, sweaty slumber. Panicking and drenched in salty sweat, she slowly regains consciousness. She struggles to control her breathing. She comforts herself.

"It was just a nightmare."

Contorting her body towards her nightstand, she shakes her last two pills into the palm of her hand.

"Shit."

DING! The convenience store bell chimes as Tess grips a pharmacy bag in her hand.

Tess takes several deep breaths as she slams her car door shut. Turning her key in the ignition, she adjusts her rearview mirror. Just then, a silver car across the street starts up too. Tess clocks it and shifts her eyes from the car to her brand-new pill bottle.

She slowly pulls out and glances in the rearview mirror to see the silver car trailing behind her. Alert, she sits up and strangles the leather steering wheel. Her heart thumps in her chest as a nervous rash overtakes her neck. She squints to see if she can make out the details of the driver's face. All she can see is a dark figure.

Winding down the never-ending road home, Tess cannot shake the headlights behind her. Her panic becomes unshakeable fear. Turn after turn, the silver car follows her like a lion stalking its prey. She can't take her eyes off the figure in the front seat.

Tess turns her focus back to the road, and a large deer leaps out from the tree line right in front of her car. She veers left and barely misses the helpless creature. Slamming on the breaks, Tess breathes heavily and looks behind her.

The deer and the silver car are both gone.

Tess's jaw hangs in disbelief. She shakes her head and reaches for her pill bottle. She dry swallows a pill before looking behind her one more time.

Back at the cabin, Tess paces by the back door, chewing on her nails with her phone pressed to her ear. She takes a sip from the whiskey glass in her hand.

"That sure sounds scary, Tess. I'm glad you're okay."

Tess peers out the glass pane that divides her from the rest of the world. Her dad's voice softly floats into the background, muffled by her thoughts. Something catches her eye.

The warped silhouetted creature lurks across the lake, peering back at Tess.

Tess stares deeply, trying to make out the details of the creature. It does not seem to have a face. She squeezes her glass tighter as she focuses on the creature's strange posture. It almost seems like two beings limply stacked on top of each other.

A loud shatter and sharp pain snap Tess out of her trance. The whiskey glass lies in pieces on the floor below. Blood oozes from Tess's hand as she whimpers.

"Tess? You there?"

"Ah, what? Yeah, sorry-I-uhh-thought I saw-"

She grabs a cloth from the kitchen and wraps her fresh wound.

"Did you take your medication today?"

"Yes, I just got distracted."

She rolls her eyes and winces at the pain radiating from her hand.

"What if you move home for a bit? Could be nice to be with family."

"Dad, I'm fine. I have to go."

She hangs up and washes her sliced-up hand in the kitchen sink. Rich velvet blood swirls around the drain.

In the steam-coated bathroom, Tess carefully wraps her hand in gauze. Shaking, she takes two pills and relaxes into the pain. She leaves the open pill bottle on the sink, waiting for the pain to subside.

SQUEAK! She wipes the steamy mirror clean.

The featureless creature appears over her shoulder.

She twists around in fear and stumbles back into the sink. Her palm knocks her open bottle of pills into the sink, spilling almost its entire contents down the drain.

"Shit, shit, shit!"

She looks back. The creature is gone.

Cradling her head in her trembling hands, she drops to the floor. Tess uncontrollably sobs.

She vigorously massages her temples as her tears hit the floor. As she weeps, she reaches for her nearly empty pill bottle and pops another into her mouth.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Tess goes silent. She holds her breath and sits as still as the air around her.

"It's not real," she mumbles to herself.

Louder this time- KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Tess scrambles for the sharpest object she can find - a pair of eyebrow scissors in the toiletry basket. She grips them in her uninjured hand.

Floorboards creak under Tess's wet feet, as she peaks out from the bathroom.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

She shutters in fear.

Then, silence.

Cautiously, she works her way to the bottom of the staircase. Checking around the corner, she notices a note by the back door. Tess timidly approaches the note.

Guardedly, she bends down and picks up the piece of paper.

FROM MAINTENANCE: MUST HAVE MISSED YOU. CHECKED YOUR LOCK. SEEMS TO WORK FINE. -JIM

She lets out an embarrassingly exasperated sigh of relief.

Smoking a cigarette and nursing a glass of whiskey, Tess paces on the phone.

"No, I know I just refilled my prescription. I accidentally spilled it down the drain."

Uneasily, she sips her whiskey.

"What do you mean I have to wait a week to refill? This is an emergency. I need my medication!"

Nervously, she puffs her cigarette.

She glances outside and spots the ghoulish creature outside the door. This time the creature is on her side of the lake.

She squeezes her eyes shut.

Puff, sip, puff, sip, puff, sip. A Toxic cocktail to numb her anxieties. A dangerous cyclone that Tess cannot escape.

Tess can feel the creature's eyes on her. She squeezes her eyes shut as tears stream down her cheeks.

"What do you want from me? Leave me alone!"

The creature glares at Tess.

Tess desperately scrolls and furiously types on her phone.

Puff, sip, puff, sip, puff, sip. The tornado worsens. She drowns herself in whiskey and cigarettes until she passes out cold on the couch.

Just as the sun peeks over the horizon, Tess is woken by the chirp of an incoming text message.

She massages her aching head and reads the message.

Tess briskly travels through a nearby park. Her eyes shift from side to side as she approaches a very large tree.

She looks over both shoulders before reaching into a hole in the tree and removing a crumpled brown paper bag from inside. She leaves an envelope in place of the bag and hurries back to her car.

Tess carefully places the crumpled brown bag on her nightstand and picks up her phone.

“Dad? I wanna come home."

"Well, of course, Tess. I can get you tomorrow morning.”

Tess's eyes well up with tears.

"...Thank you."

Tess watches TV and swigs whiskey straights from the bottle.

Trying to stay calm, she flips through channels and searches for nothing in particular. A second of black flashes between each flip.

Suddenly, the creature's reflection appears on the TV.

She snaps her head toward the creature.

Nothing.

"It's not real. It's just your imagination."

Fetal, she rocks back and forth. Convincing herself to relax enough to sleep she closes her eyes.

In a half-asleep dream-like state, Tess is startled by a scream on the TV. Her heart falls to her feet. She grabs her chest.

"Jesus!"

She clicks the TV off and lays down.

CREAK! The bedroom door creeps open.

Tess sits back up, shaking.

“Hello?”

In the dark, she reaches for her phone but knocks it to the floor.

Panicking, she grabs the brown paper bag.

Anxiously, she reaches inside and pulls out a small handgun. She extends the gun, pointing it into the dark.

Silence.

Tess blindly scans the room, trying to adjust her eyes.

More silence.

The squish of a wet footstep and a murky shallow breath echo in her ear. Gasping, she turns --

BANG!

Then silence.

"Hi, it's Tess. I can't come to the phone so leave me a message or whatever! *BEEP*"

"Hi, Tess. I’m on my way. Should be there in an hour or so, just making sure you're up. Love you."

"Hi, it's Tess. I can't come to the phone so leave me a message or whatever! *BEEP*"

"Dad again. I'm here but it's locked and I don't have a spare key."

"Hi, it's Tess. I can't come to the phone so leave me a message or whatever! *BEEP*"

"Tess, I'm getting worried. The garage isn't working. So please come let me in.”

Upstairs, Tess’s lifeless body lies in a pool of scarlet red blood.

Her clothes are sopping wet. Her skin is white as a ghost.

A trail of wet footprints leads from her body and through the hall.

Fog rolls off the lake and into the cabin through the open back door.

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