Picnic at Lover's Lake

Desire leaves you hungry, and I was starving for a blockbuster summer romance. I had just turned seventeen, school started in two weeks, and nothing at all had happened this summer. I mean Jamie and I had seen Friday the 13th a billion times at the movie theatre. I did go to summer camp at the YMCA, and dad rented a beach house for my birthday.

But, it wasn't enough! I wanted a whirlwind romance, so I could show up the first week of class with something to brag about. It's got to happen, the summer of 1980 will be the most memorable summer of my life. Little did I know how true that would become.

"Diana, can you come downstairs?" My mom called up to me.

I rolled my eyes, and trudged down the stairs expecting to take out the trash or something, but to my surprise in the foyer stood a strikingly handsome guy. He was much taller, and probably older than me with inky black hair, and piercing green eyes. Eyes that seemed to follow my every step down the staircase. He seemed mysterious, but in an exciting way. We appeared to be opposites on the surface, but opposites attract, right?

"Diana, I want you to meet someone. This is Christopher, our new next- door neighbor. Be nice!" She said, with a look.

"Mom, I am nice, don't mind her, she's hasn't been the same since the accident..." I said pointedly at Christopher.

"What accident, a-are you okay Mrs. Woodson?" He said worried.

"She's joking honey, Diana has an odd sense of humor." She shrugged.

"Diana why don't you show Christopher around a bit, he was just telling me how he needed to get out of the house, something about his parents arguing over where to hang pictures." She smirked at Christopher.

I felt giddy, I had that feeling when you know something big is going to happen, and you have to hold your breath to try to stay in the present moment. I gave him a demure look.

"You gotta bike?"

Christopher, well I mean Chris, he said I could call him that; we had more in common than I thought. He's actually seventeen too, and he loves scary movies. Also he said his dad gives him beer to drink with his friends. I won't tell mom that part.

He's definitely the bad boy that I fantasized about. We had so much fun biking around. I showed him all the cool places me and my friends like to hang out, he was especially interested in Lover's Lake. He wants to take me there tomorrow evening. I'm nervous, this is all happening so fast, what if he tries to kiss me?

____________________________________________________

Chris is not who he seemed to be, I'm lucky to be alive! I narrowly escaped on my bike, and now I'm safely home, at least I think I am. When I made it home I was soaking wet from the brewing storm that had finally broken. I quickly ran into the house and locked myself in my bedroom.

I was too afraid to do anything while I waited for my parents to come back from their dinner party, so I changed into some dry clothes and hid under the covers recalling the events that just taken place.

The evening had started off pretty normal, but it had felt different from yesterday's breezy bike ride. Chris met me around 6PM, and we biked to Lover's Lake with some beer and sandwiches.

We got to the lake and laid out our blanket. I told him my parents were at a dinner party so we could stay out late, and maybe go to my house after. He handed me a beer, and I chugged it because I was so nervous. Chris was doing most of the talking, when I started feeling dizzy and had to lay back on the blanket. He said something about needing to pee, and went off into the woods. I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to the sound of dark rumbling clouds. I shot up and didn't see Chris anywhere, and for some reason, everything looked weird and distorted.

I got up to investigate the surrounding woods, calling his name repeatedly. Then something strange happened. I had gone pretty deep in the woods and happened to see in the distance a direct view of where our blanket was, and on it sat two people that appeared to be me and Chris! I should have fled in the opposite direction, but I felt compelled to run towards the spot. Tripping through vines, I stumbled a few times, and when I made it to the blanket there was no one there.

From behind me a voice said, "I had a dream about you last night Diana."

I turned around it was Chris, in one hand a lowered knife, long and gleaming.

"I knew you'd be just the kind of girl to fall for some cheap compliments, and a couple beers. You drank that beer pretty fast, didn't you?"

"You put something in my drink!" I screamed. I should have run when I saw the knife, but some stubbornness glued my feet in place.

As I was shivering under my covers recalling the harrowing events, the lights flickered, then went out completely. Luckily, I found an emergency candle in my desk drawer. As I lit the candle and placed it on the windowsill, something outside caught my eye, I looked down. It was him.

He was standing in the pouring rain, staring directly up at me. Our eyes met, and I was afraid to look away. I didn't know what to do next. I had to call for help or something. I broke from his stare and grabbed the phone from my bedside table, but the line was dead. Of course. The only option I could think of was to sneak out the back door and run to a neighbor's house.

I cracked open my bedroom door and peaked out, but to my horror the front door was opening at the same time and Chris slowly crept inside. I must have forgotten to lock the front door in my hurry to get inside.

"Diana, come out wherever you are! I was only trying to scare you, I promise I'll be nice." He said in a sing-song voice.

As silently as I could, I closed my door and locked it. I could sense that Chris was coming up the stairs, and it wouldn't be long until he found me.

The doorknob rattled violently, I knew I had run out of options and time. I didn't want it to come to this, but he left me no choice. I unlocked the door and pushed it open, knocking him back a bit. His eyes widened, as I stood calmly before him.

Before he realized what was happening, I grabbed his hand that gripped the knife, and helped him plunge it into my chest. I yanked down and opened a large slit leading from my breast to my belly button.

Chris stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, gasping as he tried to crawl away. I grabbed a chunk of his inky black hair and dragged him back into my room, throwing him violently into a corner. The Woodson's would be home soon, I needed to work quickly. He stared at me in horror as I locked the door.

"W-what's happening? He stuttered in shock. "What are you?"

I could smell his terror, but he was unable to look away.

"This is why the drug didn't work on you! You-you're different, you're not human!" He yelled.

I didn't have time for his confused ramblings, I shoved my hands into the open slit of my chest, and peeled back the skin. It was too soon for me to molt, so it was painful to step out of the human suit. As I contorted out of Diana's body, her broken bones and sinew made horrible cracking noises. When my true unimaginable form stood before Chris, he could not bear it any longer, passing out from fear. Good, I thought, this will make getting inside him much easier. ____________________________________________________

I pushed my empty plate away, and chugged the dregs of my black coffee as the waiter stood by the table waiting to refill my mug.

"Can I get anything else for you sir? She asked.

"No thanks, just the check." I replied.

I had stopped at a small diner off the freeway on my way out of town. I had a long drive ahead of me. I've always wanted to go to California, that's where I planned to start my new life.

After I entered Chris's body and cleaned up the mess I made, I needed to hide for the night while I came up with a plan. I hadn't intended to change form so soon. I was shocked when I checked the contents of my new wallet. Although Chris's face was unmistakable, the name and age were not. His real name was Michael Miller, age 24.

When I discovered Chris, or should I say Michael, had lied about his identity, I wanted to investigate. If he was 24, I figured he didn't really move to town with his parents like he told me, and I was right. I snuck next door to find his house dark, and I entered with a key I found in his jeans pocket.

After a couple hours investigating his nearly empty house, I put together the pieces of Michael's life. He was a bad man. Newspaper clippings, mementos, and various tools of torture revealed that he was a serial killer and rapist. It appeared that he would move from town to town murdering girls who lived next door to him.

I gathered from his saved clippings that he hadn't been to the west coast yet, so I figured California would be a good place to avoid any possible pursuit. Although it seemed the police's trail was rather cold.

I packed up a bag of clothes, and found the set of keys for the car in the garage. I decided I should start driving, just in case the Woodson's realized their daughter was missing and called a slew of police cars to the area. Unfortunately the Woodson's had lost the real Diana long ago.

Before I left, I burned the news clippings and other evidence so it wouldn't tip off the cops. I decided the bag of rope, duct tape, and other devices shouldn't go to waste, so I packed those in the car as well.

I left the house and drove overnight, stopping at this diner several towns away. Now that I had some distance I could relax and plan my route. I was excited for the new beginning. It was fun pretending to be a teenage girl, but it just wasn’t me. As I was putting the tip on the table, and getting ready to head out, I overheard two nosy old women talking at the counter.

“Dottie, did you catch the 6am news this morning” She said excitedly.

“No, was there a bad car wreck or something?” The other replied.

“No, no. It’s so sad. A young girl over in Chatham when missing last night. They think it was a boy who lived next door, did something to her. Police are asking for any leads.” She said.

“Oh dear, that is unfortunate, I sure hope they catch whoever took her.” She sighed.

I breezed past the old bats, and left the diner to start my long journey. Yes, I thought, Diana really didn't suit me. My green eyes gleamed sinisterly in the rear-view mirror. I’m looking forwards to my new life as the next-door slayer.