The Lake of Souls Reach

Helen remembered when kids used to play by the lake. There used to be family reunions and picnics on the shore. There used to be boats in the summer and ice skating in the winter. Helen remembered when that all changed. She remembered how algae became worse and worse, how it would latch on to their skin when they went swimming. She remembered how more and more fish were found dead on the lakeshore. She was unsure why or how this started to happen. Her childhood mind latched onto the old legend of the lake and how it was sacred for spirits that rested at the bottom. Perhaps they were angry. Perhaps it was pollution.

Any attempt to recapture the joy of the lake became a distant dream, however, since the day a young boy drowned. Souls Reach Lake went from a sparkling jewel of the small town filled with happy memories to a sinister, algae-filled memento of regret. The boy that drowned did so not in the quiet night, but in the middle of the day. Instead of alone, he was in the company of tens of people on the shore. The boy was Hunter Crass. Helen knew all of this because Hunter was her older brother.

“Did you know,” Stephanie Partridge told Helen a year before the incident. “That if you go to the lake at night and look into the water, you’re supposed to be able to see one of the souls staring back up at you?”

“Stephanie, that’s scary!” Helen complained. “Why would you say that?”

“It’s true! My brother told me,” Stephanie insisted. “Jamie said that he looked into the water one night after sneaking out of the house, and when he looked down, instead of himself, he saw a man in a uniform. It was like something you see in old war movies.”

Remembering what her best friend said last year, Helen felt a shiver up her spine. She didn’t anticipate how cold it would be outside when it was so late out.

“But you can only look out at it when the big white moon is full. And only when it's past midnight.”

Helen heard Stephanie’s voice again in her mind. The young girl took a deep breath. She could smell the algae in the water. She decided to muster up the courage by looking out at a distance. It had been seven years since she lost her brother. She grew up quickly despite having not reached her teenage years yet. She felt like she had to grow up quickly since her faith in her parents had shattered on that day.

She was there with Stephanie and her brother, Jamie. The four of them were playing by a small cliff that was no more than a 3 foot drop. Helen failed to recall the game they were playing, but Hunter fell backward into the water. Hunter wasn’t much of a swimmer since he broke his arm the year before, and Helen and Stephanie turned to run and get the adults as quick as possible. “Dad, mom,” They shouted. The adults were talking about something, and the two girls kept getting quieted and interrupted. “It’s not ladylike to shout,” One grandmother scolded. “Wait your turn to speak,” Another exhausted parent persisted. It took nearly two minutes until someone realized the urgency in the girl’s voice. It took until Helen started crying.

Two minutes was all it took. Jamie was found at the edge reaching down and screaming for Hunter to keep swimming. The algae made the cliff too slippery to find purchase and Jamie couldn’t hold on strong enough with the slimy water causing Hunter’s arm to slip from his grasp.

Though time caused Helen to come to terms with the incident, she never quite trusted the adults after that. She considered herself mature and wise beyond her years, which shook her enough to make Helen ask herself, ‘Why am I doing this?’

It was a full moon night on Hunter’s 13th Birthday. The town was so small that the lake was a walk from most everywhere. Helen took slow, heavy footsteps to the bank. She witnessed the lazy tide. Years have caused the crystal lake to be more emerald as the algae covered it. Helen would have to take a few steps into the water to be deep enough. She made a face of the stench and kicked off her sandals, hiking her nightgown to her knees and taking the few steps inside the freezing, green lake.

She looked down.

The moonlight from above helped her see the vague details of her own face. For a moment she felt a wave of relief and disappointment. She thought that, of course, ghosts weren’t real. There was no portal to the realm of the afterlife. Even if there was, why would it be in such a small, unassuming town in the middle of nowhere? There was nothing special about Souls Reach. There was nothing special about the lake. It was nothing more than the grave of her brother.

That’s when she saw it.

Eyes and nose similar to hers, but younger and mouth agape. Even though he had been her older brother, seeing his face in place of hers in the reflection reminded her about how young Hunter really was when he died.

At first, Helen didn’t know if she was frozen out of fear or if her heart refused to let her go without talking to him first. Hunter’s expression was pained. Afraid. Without recognition or cognition. Then, more faces glowed from underneath the water. That was when Helen became afraid.

Something brushed up against her right leg.

Helen screamed and ran back to shore. “Something touched me, I’m going to die, help!” She screamed. She looked back once on shore to see what had brushed against her. It was the carcass of a carp. Eyes and scales were white except for the bits tainted by algae. With terror, Helen took this as a sign. ‘Go Away,’ The sign was saying. As she ran home barefoot, having forgotten her shoes on the shore, she realized that though it was probable that souls were actually trapped in Souls Reach Lake, whatever it was that looked like her brother wasn’t her brother. At least, it wasn't her brother anymore.