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Still Waters Beneath the Surface

A horror story

By John DodgePublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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Still Waters Beneath the Surface
Photo by Samuel Ferrara on Unsplash

Alexis wasn't sure what she was supposed to find after driving nine hours to Might-As-Well-Be-Nowhere, Nebraska. She wasn't even sure why she was making the drive in the first place. Obviously it was important to go and pay her respects. Losing Candace hadn't been easy. It didn't make much sense, either.

"Suicide doesn't make much sense," is what Candace's mother said when Alexis first heart from her. Her own mom said the same thing.

"None of this shit makes sense," Alexis muttered to herself as she drove slowly down the narrow road through the trees. The turn for the lake had to be coming up soon. The scenery was all bleeding together at this point, and the instructions Alexis had been given when her GPS stopped working were anything but clear. Between that and the cold response she had gotten in response to wanting to visit the place where Candace died, Alexis felt like the world itself was trying to keep her away.

The man at the gas station had told her to look for where the sign was supposed to be. "You'll know it when you see it," he told her in a gravely, almost somber tone.

He wasn't wrong, though. Through all of the thin branches that scratched at the sides of her truck and the wispy fog they hid behind were two large posts peaking out through the brush.

"Yeah, alright," Alexis said to herself, "There should probably be a sign there."

It wasn't much more of a drive until she could see the lake through the trees. The quickly setting sun shone off of it with a near silver glint, as if the water were culling the daylight before it could reflect outward. Alexis wasn't driving very fast, but the last of the forest whizzed by in a frenzied blur before she fell short of breath upon finally catching her first full view of the lake. It was so much smaller than she expected. No houses, no cabins, not even a lone dock dotted the scenery, yet somehow the water seemed to encompass Alexis' entire field of vision.

Alexis snapped herself out of the near daydream she had been caught in and began looking for somewhere to park. She turned right down where the road branched, although it didn't look to lead anywhere in particular. Another few minutes of cruising were enough for Alexis to pull off to the side of the road, parking on the grass under the assumption that no signs meant no one would bother to write her a ticket anyway. That tiny nagging fear wasn't really real, but it was a good enough excuse to stay in the truck for a moment. She needed to think about it all again.

Why was she there? Why did she drive so far? Candace wouldn't care, and if she did she wouldn't want Alexis to put herself through all of the stress just to see where she drowned. It wasn't all that close to where Candace grew up. It wasn't some special place to her. There was no catharsis to be found in this body of water. But Alexis was there. Something had driven her to make the journey, to look for whatever it was Candace had been looking for. Maybe she had hoped to learn something along the way. Of course, the drive alone wasn't that interesting. No family secrets. No mysterious hitchhikers. Just a vague sense of being while the world moved around her to bring Alexis to this place.

The grass was listless beneath her feet as Alexis got out of the truck. Everything looked half-dead, except for the lake. As she walked towards it, Alexis began to take note of how dreary the flora surrounding the water was, a fact belied by the landscape's vibrant reflection. The image's on the water's surface were impossible in their clarity, even as the wind kept them from holding still for long. Alexis couldn't help but notice how much the lake moved from such relatively small gusts. She wondered if Candace had ever noticed the same thing.

"It doesn't make any sense," Alexis cried softly, the words only barely making their way out of her throat. Candace was happy. Candace was loved. But Candace came to this place and died, and now Alexis was there wondering why. Wondering what Candace was thinking when she took her first steps into the water. Wondering why she didn't stop when it began to fill her shoes. The water was so cold. Alexis could feel it on her ankles.

"It doesn't make any sense," Alexis whispered. She couldn't wrap her head around anything that had happened. She didn't understand why Candace had come here or why she had taken her own life. She didn't understand why she herself had come here or why she so desperately had to see this place for herself. She didn't understand why the reflections of the shore and the trees looked ever more comforting the deeper into the water she peered. Even in the dead of night, Alexis could feel the heat radiating off of the thin strip of beach resting on a single edge of the lake. She wanted to lie down there and bask in the moonlight.

Maybe that was why Candace had come here. Maybe she knew how inviting the lake really was, that the still waters were waiting for them beneath the surface. How could she have known? It didn't make sense to Alexis. Candace never talked about this place in any meaningful way. Something brought her here. Something called out to her just like her own death had called out to Alexis. Just like the lake was calling out to her now.

The diminutive waves rolled across Alexis' hips, embracing them tenderly while her clothes became heavier. She could feel the water soaking into her sweater, the fabric becoming infinitely heavier with every step she took. Those steps somehow became leaps through no effort of her own. In what felt like an instant, Alexis was neck deep. She wasn't stopping. There was no instinct to lift her head towards the sky as her lips slipped beneath the surface.

The reflections were still there when she was finally fully submerged. Alexis wondered if this was why Candace had come to this place. She wondered if Candace knew what she would find in reflections beneath the lake. She hoped so. If Candace knew, then maybe Alexis knew now, too. Maybe not knowing would be enough to bring someone else here. Alexis thought about her mother, about how much she would love the sight of it all. If she just stayed down there a little bit longer, maybe her mother would come, too.

John Dodge needs to lie down for a minute. You can send him your thoughts and/or recommendations on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. He can also be found writing about comic books nearly every single day at CBR.com. If you enjoyed this story, click the heart below, and don't forget to subscribe to get notified when John publishes new articles right here on Vocal.

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About the Creator

John Dodge

He/Him/Dad. Writing for CBR daily. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for assorted pop culture nonsense. Posting the comic book panels I fall in love with daily over here. Click here if you want to try Vocal+ for yourself.

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