October Nights

It's almost unimaginable, being able to swim out in an open lake. To be weightless floating on top, or to see a whole new world from underneath. I always loved going fishing on this lake, always have with my father. Even after he had passed. I'll never forget his wild stories about seeing creatures in the lake, but I was never afraid. Always found it interesting instead, but they were just stories. He always had an imagination that goes beyond this world. It must be where I got my imagination. Anyways, this lake has meant a lot to me. I never actually keep the fish I catch, I release them back. Today seemed special for some reason. I packed up my tackle box, grabbed my fishing pole, and headed over with my boat. As soon as I approach the lake, I noticed that I was the only one here. Ok, not a big deal, more fish for me to catch and release. I'm out on my boat with my pole, and the line in the water. Suddenly, I feel strange sensation that I'm not alone. Just shrug it off I told myself, it's nothing. The water is really calm for some odd reason, the fish normally bite by now. It's been half an hour now. Did something scare them away? The only other large creature I know that's in this lake are two snapping turtles. Well it's almost dark out, I'll come back tomorrow, might have better luck then. I packed everything up and went home. I didn't even bother unpacking everything from the truck, didn't even make myself dinner. Just wanted to go to bed and get tomorrow started. The next morning when I woke up, I felt energized, excited to get back out on the lake. Damn, I am hungry though. I'll stop at the deli on the way there. Get my usual turkey and roast beef sub with cheese, olives, mayo and pickles. Yeah, I have weird taste in food. I'm waiting for my sandwich to be made, and I heard a couple guys that go fishing as well. Talking about that the cops discovered a body from the lake. "I'm sorry to interrupt, did you say the cops found a body"? I had asked them. "Yeah the patrolling cop from this morning found the body right by the dock." The other gentleman said with a frightened look on his face. He even explained that the body had bite marks, like a human. Didn't even look like teeth, more like sharp holes dug into his skin. That's really weird, I don't even know any aquatic animals that do that. Who knows, it could've been a bear that was close by. I shrugged it off, I just wanted to go fishing even more now. I ate the first half of my sandwich, and drove right to the lake. When I got there, I did see a cop hanging out there, and I noticed it was Harry, an old buddy of mine from college. He looked at me with an upset face though, probably about the body. "Hey John, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go fishing at the moment", he sounded like he was going to cry. "Why, what's going on Harry? I heard about a body." That's when Harry confirmed that the body was Sam. Another old college friend. Almost broke down myself in front of him. I want to go see it, but Harry won't let me. Must be that bad in shape. "Please Harry, can't I just fish just this one time. Sam used to go fishing with me." My voice quivered there for a moment. "Alright John, just this one time. Just don't go near the body. Please?" Although the curiosity crept over me, I agreed not to go near the body. I got all my stuff ready in the boat, I looked over to the corner of my eye, and I could see the feet of the body. The curiosity got even stronger, the more I thought about it as well. Harry stayed close to wait for the coroner to get the body. The sound of a loud speeding Porsche broke my concentration, as well as Harry's post on watch. Harry went after the speedster to pull him over, and most likely give him a ticket. After he left, I looked back over at what little I could see of the body. I felt like I had to, so I walked over to get a better look. The minute I saw the body, I felt that sandwich come back up. Oh my god! What kind of animal could do something like this? Holes in his neck, the size of toothpicks. His face, you couldn't even see it. The rest of his body, torn up like it went through a woodchipper. Whatever happened, it's quite obvious that it wasn't just one creature. It was more than one. Then at the corner of my eye, in the water, I saw something splash. I didn't actually see the thing, but it did sound big. Whatever it was that did this to Sam, it came from the water, I just know it. And I'm going to try and catch it. I grabbed the big stuff from the bed of my truck, and I geared up for whatever it is that's out there. With using the titanium fishing pole that my father had especially made for me, never understood why though. I waited like half an hour with regular bait, nothing yet. I also noticed that Harry hasn't come back yet. I decided to put different bait on the end, something a little bit more bloodier. I grabbed a chunk piece that you normally feed to a shark. Well look at that, not even five minutes in, already caught something. Damn, this thing is strong. I tried my damn hardest to reel this thing in, it actually started to bend my fishing pole. If I couldn't get this thing in my boat with this pull, it will break my rod in half. I gave it one last pull, I fell on my back. I looked up and what I saw, was unbelievable. Half fish, and half woman. Thrashing around its big fluke of a tail. She's beautiful though, but how could something so beautiful kill my friend. She looked at me, and I just looked back. I started to hear a song in my head, wow, I just don't have the words for how amazing she is. Then she just jumped back into the water. I rushed to the edge of my boat, trying to find her. I decided to jump in and look for her. First time being underwater here. I'm looking around my vicinity of what I could see to find her. Then I see something, I want to say about 10 meters in front of me. It's so cloudy underwater. I moved forward a bit, saw something move at the corner of my eye. I turned as fast as I could to see it. Then it happened again. They're everywhere, what is going on? Something is rushing at me, what is that? I went up to surface to catch some air, but before I could, something grabbed my foot. Right in front of me, a scaled creature, with really sharp teeth....