The Killing Lake

One day it happens, that something you feared deep down inside you all along. The price you pay for ignoring those little red flags and warning signs, such a naive one . Eternity lost inside this lake. Here is where I made my biggest mistake.

In the beginning we were friends, he came cleverly disguised. A sharp gentleman to say the very least. I was mesmerized and hanging on all of his words. It had never dawned on me how normal serial killers can actually be. He had a way of making me feel comfortable and safe. Who knew he could be capable of such wicked little things . This lake hides so many despicable things .

One day the phone rings and it’s him. He says, “I have something I want to show to you. I’ll pick you up Friday after work and trust me you’ll love it”. I’ve missed him lately he’s been scarce. I figured maybe he just needed some space. He had a way of distancing anytime it seems we start to get close. You think to yourself, we all have a little baggage those things we don’t like to talk about. He guarded that side of himself very well.

Friday came, he picked me up after work and we headed South down The 400. Today he wasn’t himself and seemed oddly cold and distant. I had a bad feeling deep in my stomach. Suddenly a bird crashed into his truck. I assumed it was just more rotten luck as they seem to be doing that allot to any vehicle I’ve been in all week. Just more annoying coincidences. Maybe we both can really use this weekend to destress and unwind. We pulled up to a cozy cabin down by a lake. I remember he paused for a moment and starred over at the lake . I asked him if he was ok ? he quickly smiled and said, “we’re here, this is it “. What do you think ? It’s mine, he says with the strangest smile, more like a grin now that I think back about it. We ate and talked while we sat by the fire we were both tired from a really long week at our jobs. I’m sure everything is fine and maybe I’m tired I thought. We’ll both get a good nights rest and be more like ourselves tomorrow.

Morning comes quick as the sun blasts its beams through the cabin windows. It felt like I had just closed my eyes . I can already smell coffee and breakfast and it smells so delicious. Cool, I thought maybe he’s over what it is that’s bothering him. He gives me the story of how he inherited the cabin with the lakeside property his father left him in his will. Again that strange look on his face. It was starting to creep me out . This time I just had to ask, is everything alright ? You seem a little off . He says he’s a bit tired he barely slept at all. I didn’t know he hadn’t slept. I was so tired I dozed off pretty quick. I’m alright he says “it’s been a few years now since my father past and still bothers him, now be a good girl finish your coffee “. I’m going to tinker in the shed for a bit while you finish eating get showered up and ready for the day ahead. I get it. Losing a loved one is never easy. It was a clever way of shutting down any real discussions of himself, he’s allot smoother than I had even imagined. Suddenly I’m starting to get this picture of this place he wanted to show me. It’s a sentimental thing being at this cabin. Allot of memories I’m sure were made here down at this lake. I finished my breakfast and grabbed a quick shower. He was still outside tinkering in his shed. So I decided to amuse myself and start looking around. Just check everything out I guess looking for more clues to this person that I’m with who gets so quiet and bottled up.

Old photos on the walls of him and his father with guns, I’m assuming they were hunters. I can tell by the back grounds it was here they hunted. They seemed really happy in all of the photos. One thing that stood out in my mind was the absence of his mother. He didn’t speak of her and she wasn’t in any of the photos. Now I start to wonder even more about this person I’m with who has become such an enigma to me. I’m on a quest a mission to figure this person out . I stumbled upon an old cigar box tucked back behind some old books on the bookshelf. Inside it were various trinkets. Two neckless’s , 2 rings and one charm bracelet. Nothing fancy just misscelanious pieces. I’m assuming are or were most likely his mothers. After all he did mention being an only child when we first met. I hear a long bang suddenly he’s cursing and shouting. It startled me. I quickly put the box back as it was tucked away nicely on the shelf. I was going to go see what what was wrong, but when I turned around he was already standing behind me in the door way. I ask is everything ok ? what was that all about? Oh he chuckles you’ll figure it out soon enough. Again with that look, now I’m starting to not like this little scenario one little bit. Something is totally off with him, that grin is just way too creepy. The tone in his voice calm and smooth always, just like the lake. It’s as though he has some secret switch that’s been turned on inside him. I don’t know this person at all and it’s showing more and more since we’ve been here. Just just like that he disappeared again right when I had pretty much had enough and now I’m now longer comfortable being here. I was ready to ask him politely to take me home . I started to feel slightly panicked as I called out to him. Everything is still, there’s not even a sound. Just the barn owl off in the woods faint in the distance casually echoing. I start getting tired and feeling a little nautious, now I’d really like to leave but I don’t know how? I’m trapped here. He drove us here and the keys are no where to be found. I can see his truck still parked out on the gravel driveway. I know he’s here somewhere. But where ? Why does he keep disappearing and acting so strangely ? I’m so confused why did he bring me here ? I have only questions with no answers . Just as I start to muscle up the strength to walk out to find him once more. Here he is again standing in the door this time is different . He stands there glaring at me with that look again, that awful look . I feel sick I’d like to go home now I politely mumble. I heard him take a breath and then release a big sigh. Calmly and collectively he starts saying. What am I going to do with you, you simply won’t die and he chuckles. I’m standing there nautious and getting dizzier by the second, my vision starts slightly blurring. I don’t even think. I just turn around and run out the back door without any question. I frantically ran out into the woods. No plan, no explanations, just run . I need to put as much distance between us as I simply can. In the background I hear him shouting, you won’t get to far he had poisoned my coffee but apparently not enough. He mockingly confesses. I never really understood why my father enjoyed hunting so much. But this , this is so much better. Chanting and carrying on in the background like a crazed psychotic. Human prey is so much more rewarding as he fires a shot from the hunting riffle that was on the gun shelf by the door. I knew despite how horrible I felt I had to quietly keep moving.

Now I’m being hunted by this strange psycho I thought was such a nice guy. An hour later I could hear more shouting and laughing he sounded drunk and crazed as he boldly told more confessions about every year how he brings a girlfriend here never to leave . There is no mistaking he’s surely going to kill me and just like the others. I will be permanently be trapped here.

The night sets in, it’s dark and chilly and I’m still nautious and my vision is getting blurrier. I have to keep going if I can just get to the road somehow maybe there’s a chance I can get out of here. It’s a long shot, surrounded by forrests with nothing else but a lake. It’s really kind of hopeless, but it’s the only shot I’ve got of surviving his devious game . I can hide that’s my only defense. My stomach hurts more than ever I just close my eyes for a second. I need to rest and catch my breath for a moment.

What seemed like minutes I had just barely blinked and here it is, It’s morning again. I wake up shivering. Everything was damp with the early morning dew. I must have past out, but I am quickly reminded of my current situation. I have to make it to the road maybe he’s a sleep I have to try. I started to make another run for it . I ran for what seemed like forever. Finally there it is, the road I’m almost there . I also can hear the occasional car passing . Now suddenly I have hope I’m so close I can’t stand it. Just a little bit further I’m almost there. This is it! All I have is this one shot. Not so hopeless after all, I thought. Finally I made it I’m here. I think as I reach the edge of the forest and just as I go to step out to the edge of the road , I hear a car coming . I’m so relieved I think I’m finally free as I go to step out when suddenly he grabs me and drags me back through the woods . He binds me down and covers my mouth with tape. I’m terrified and too tired and sick to even fight back at this point.

I was so close was all I could think . I lay here sobbing it was to much to bare. Everything hurts and I’m so very tired. I remember thinking, what is he waiting for and why didn’t he just do it already? My mind raced as you can imagine anyone facing certain death might be. He dragged me off back to the shed. He went inside for a second and grabbed his hunting knife. This is how he finally decides he’s going to finish me off . One last confession first right before stabbing me mercilessly 5 times in the chest . I hear him say to the lake with you, just like the others. I wasn’t dead yet, barely breathing as the blood starts to pool on the ground . I’m so severely wounded I can’t even speak as he drags me off again to the edge of the dock at the edge of the lake. He dumps me in like I was nothing at all. I look at his face right before I start to sink as I feel him pulling off my ring on my left hand. I see that glazed over blank stare in his eyes with that crazy look again. This time full on psycho mode and I could tell he was caught in his glorified little moment of killing me. I start fading off slowly with all the blood left in me quickly leaving my body. I sank to the bottom where I saw for a second the image of some remains of what had to be one of the others as I finally took my last breath.

This is it. Just another hunting trophy he collected in his lake. Who knew someone so evil could even exist. Hunting women like deer to spite his father. A real psycho that befriended me knowing full well his only intention was to kill me all along. Just like the others he succeeded again and again. This lake hides us in plain sight. He’ll surely lure and keep striking again and again. Monsters like this know no end. He’s cleverly packaged that whole other life. No one would ever suspect or even question him one bit.

The scariest kind of bad people seem to come with little warning. I figured it all out in my final moments, where I lie slowly dying at the bottom of this lake . One more body to add to his collection. Another trinket to add to his little cigar box . That’s all I am now a memory for him to feed on . My soul trapped here in this hellish purgatory, While he polishes and grooms his next unsuspecting victims. I think what’s worst, is the thought of this being his lake. My soul is trapped here forever in his little lake. Like deer antlers mounted on a wall, our bodies collecting in his lake where he can constantly come back to recapture each wicked little killing again and again.

In that last moment, I had remembered when we pulled in, how he was lost starring at the lake. Finally understanding it all in the moments before my life had quickly vanished. All that was left inside me had drained out in the lake. Lured in like prey for a drink of water then ambushed without warning like me and who knows how many others. This lake holds the secrets of a true psycho killer and how he used it as his playground to stalk and kill for merely a cheap thrill. Every year another soul another victim taken at this gruesome killing lake .