Yemoja: The beginning

In the dying light of the sun, the children were sitting by the campfire with their parents by the lake. “Who wants marshmallows?” Susan brought in a wicker basket brimming with Graham crackers, Chocolate bars and bags of fluffy white marshmallows.

“Yay!” Anna said “I do!” and waved her arm in the air. Austin and Greg cheered loudly, “Everyone grab a nice branch and let’s get started.” Jay was holding a bunch of sticks out to his children. Dad, can you Not tell us some real scary stories this time?” Anna asked. “I think Greg and Austin were scared last time. They couldn’t sleep and kept me up half the night jumping at every sound.”

“That’s a lie! Dad, I wasn’t scared It was Greg. He kept me up too!” “I wasn’t scared! Anna was making creepy noises to keep us up but I wasn’t scared!”

“Okay, okay! Settle down. I’m thinking no more scary stories because I get scared too! So, I want a nice cheerful story about a princess. Susan beamed.

“Oh no, no!” Cried Anna

“No way!” Greg declared

“Dad please No!” I’d rather go to bed now Austin bellowed. All the while their father laughed.

“Well, your mother wants a tale of a Princess…” he said rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I never heard of any Princess with a tail but I aim to please. “Daaad! No corny jokes please!” Anna pleaded.

“Hey! Susan admonished her husband.”

They heard a cracking sound like a branch breaking under foot. They looked around and saw some shrubbery move then something out in the water caught their eyes. They gazed over the water and saw some movement by the shore several yards from their location. It seemed the water was coming up the shore but only in one spot. The water was rippling and moving like it was taking shape! It rose and they saw a figure composed of water bobbing out of the lake and stalking into the undergrowth followed by three more!

…….

1986, Black Lake, Cumberland County, Maine.

A group of teenagers were swimming in the lake. “Let’s race back to the shore.” Nathan suggested. “It’s barely worth calling a race cos it’s so close” “It’s not close! It’s almost twice as long as the pool in the water Park!” Betty objected.

“Come on let’s do it!” encouraged Cody. Okay?”

“Okay” Betty conceded and they swam with all the gusto they could muster churning water as they made for shore.

Suddenly Betty stopped and looked around. Then, in a panic she made after the others. Chad suddenly cramped up and started to struggle as he sank beneath the surface. As he went down unnoticed by the others in their singular focus to make it to shore quickly, he felt someone grab him around the waist and make for the surface. As his head broke the surface, he realized his feet were touching the bottom. He looked around him and there was no one close to him but he could feel someone steadying him. He looked towards the shore where the others were lying on the sand and called out. Instantly he fell back into the water. The others rushed in to pull him out.

After catching his breath, he told them what happened and his friends thought he was playing a joke on them and didn’t take him seriously.

Then Betty said “I felt something in the water just after we started swimming!” “What, a mermaid?” Laughed Cody. No I don’t think so. I didn’t see anything around me but I felt like something touched me then kind of nudged me!” Betty and Chad looked at each other as if searching for a trace of some trickery but seeing the same look of fear in each other’s eyes they knew the other was not pretending.

As the day wore on the group decided to build a fire to stay warm and relax with some beers and music. Even Betty and Chad were a little more relaxed now having told themselves it was all some coincidence. They sat next to each other and did their best to look at the fire or at their friends and not the water. Tracy got up and said “I have to go pee. Vee, will you come with me?”

“Sure.” She answered and Betty jumped up saying “I’ll come too!” and the girls made off into the trees looking for a spot not far away to relieve themselves with Danny calling out “Don’t go too far and take a second flashlight.” He said tossing Vanessa a flashlight. They walked to some trees with a screen of shrubbery not far from their party spot and took turns to pee so they had one person on watch. Just as Vee was taking her turn to pee, they heard a twig snap on the other side of their make shift toilet. Betty and Tracy trained their flashlights on the area and Vee deciding to carry on simply raised her voiced and said “Cody, you pervert. Go pee somewhere else!” Then she heard Tracy scream turn and run while Betty stayed frozen to the spot. Vee jumped up pulling her pants up and calling Betty reached her and saw in the light a human shape made of water reaching out to Betty with its arms. She grabbed Betty and ran for the bonfire.

While waiting for the girls to return, Danny looking out over the water caught sight of something in the dark water and tapped David on the shoulder. He pointed and said look. David saw what it looked like and sprang up to grab the flash light from one of the bags. Before he could train it on the thing that caught his eye, they heard a scream and Tracy came running toward them, alone.

“What happened? Where are the others?” Cody grabbed her by the shoulders and asked. She looked terrified and pointed where she had just come from “They are back there.” The others had started running that way when they saw Vee running to them with Betty in tow.

“What happened?’ Danny asked as he reached them his eyes searching behind them with his flash light.

“There was something watching us! Vee said her voice betraying the terror she felt. “Let’s get out of here Betty wailed.

“Grab your stuff!” Chad said picking up a couple of back packs

“Hold on! What did you see exactly?”

Betty said “It’s the Lake spirit!” “It was a man made of water!” Tracy voice was quivering.

The boys looked at each other with uncertainty. The girls were not beyond playing tricks on them… but there had been a couple of weird experiences for Chad and Betty.

Cody grabbed Tracy’s flash light and said “Come on let’s go see” to David. You girls are not beyond playing tricks too!

“Danny and I saw something in the water too!”

“What? When?” Cody inquired surprised and now getting scared.

“It looked like a couple of people watching us, but we heard Tracy scream…”

As one they all looked out toward the water and gasped. They could make out a number of figures highlighted by a pale green light in the lake watching them just far enough to be dark silhouettes in the water. A sound behind them made them turn away from the water. They turned to see a number of adult human sized people made of water.

They all ran!