The Haunted Lake

Late one night, I took a stroll

And chanced upon a child

A little girl in a thin white dress

The night was cold

My breath white puffs upon the air

Yet the child shivered not

“Dear me!” I exclaimed

“What are you doing out here all alone?

Are you lost, child?

Where’s your mummy?

Your daddy?”

The girl looked up at me

Big eyes pleading in her pale face

“Please, can you help me?”

She asked in a tiny voice

“My mummy is down there, by the lake.

She isn’t moving. She won’t get up.

Please, will you help her?”

Dread pierced my heart like a sharpened dagger

I cried, “Lead the way!”

She turned and walked on soundless feet

Feet I had not noticed were actually quite bare

I spared the knowledge no second thought

And followed hastily

The lake was shrouded in mist and fog

I could sense secrets hidden within

And yet I followed on

At last we came to the water’s edge

I glanced all around…

No body could I see

“Where is she?”

I asked with growing unease

The little girl stood motionless

No answer did she give

Throwing herself suddenly into the water instead!

“No!” I cried with arms outstretched

And threw myself in after

In the hopes of catching the moppet

The water was not deep

Barely coming to my knees

As I fished recklessly about

Water flying everywhere

In my desperate endeavour

Yet no child did I find, no trace of her at all

I was chilled down to the bone

Decided that I must get out

Lest hypothermia set in

At that very moment

Something frightful happened

As I felt a little hand take firm hold upon my ankle

I screamed in terror, my gaze pulled frantically down

And there she was, the little girl

Smiling grotesquely at me

“But… but,” I stuttered

“What of your mother?”

“I don’t need a mother,” she said

Her voice an echo, a hollow, dissonant sound

“Because now, I have you.”

I could not escape

She dragged me under, murdered me

Drowned me there that winter’s night

I guess that it was fate

Though why, I do not know

But now my spirit lingers here, bound forevermore

I haunt the lake

Always watching… waiting in my watery grave…

And I am waiting for you

…

The End

The photo was one I took myself at a local swimming spot near my home in NSW, Australia. I edited it to make it look a bit creepier and more fitting for the poem.

Thanks for reading! Happy Spooky Month!