This is something that happened to me last summer. I’m opting to tell it now cause… well we’re all cooped up indoors and I suppose there’s no better time. Also, perhaps finally telling it will be somehow cathartic. But I doubt that.
To this day, I can’t find an explanation for what happened. In fact, I can’t even fathom there being an explanation that I’ll ever understand.
I was camping with a few friends. We weren’t terribly deep in the woods or anything. In fact, there was another campsite set up maybe 2-300 meters away from us.
For the first few days, calling it a “great time” would’ve been an understatement. We were having a fucking blast. Exams were finally over, and we were blowing off steam any way we could. There were five of us in total. Neel, James, Curtis, Ahmad and Steve – me. Real sausage fest, I know.
There was a lake within walking distance of our campsite, and I found myself sitting on the shore during the 3rd night. Curtis and I were smoking while talking about our final year of Uni and the future ahead of us. It’d been quite the tumultuous year, after all.
After a while, Curtis left to hit on the girls at the campsite near us. I stayed for a bit after, listening to music while looking up at the stars. At some point, I noticed water rippling onto the shore. I froze for a moment. I couldn’t imagine somebody actually being on the lake. I took my headphones out, and heard the sound of splashing water.
It sounded frenetic. Almost like somebody was… drowning.
I sat up and looked, shocked at the sight ahead of me. Sure enough, there was somebody out there, maybe fifty meters away from the shore, seemingly struggling to stay afloat. It looked like an adult man, but I couldn’t tell from so far. But it certainly wasn’t a child.
What the hell? I thought. Of course, the first conclusion I came to was that my friends were playing a trick on me. It was definitely something they’d do, after all. (Fucked up, I know).
I mean, it was nearly midnight. Who the hell else could it be?
“Oh, come on!” I yelled out. “You think I’d fall for that?”
The figure just kept splashing around. Soon enough, I started getting worried.
At that point, it was either saving my pride or letting somebody drown to death. If it was one of my friends, then I’d just get them back later.
“Hang on!” I yelled out, before jumping in. I wasn’t the best swimmer, but I was certainly competent enough. I was confident that I’d be able to lug this guy to shore.
Nevertheless, my lack of goggles, combined with the fact that it was nearly pitch black outside did make things a bit harder. Eventually, I stopped in order to make sure I was moving the right way.
However… he was gone. There was no more splashing. I panicked for a moment, thinking that I’d acted too late. But then I realized something even more horrifying. I was able to stand. The water went up to my chest, and I was only about 5’6, or 167 cm tall . I looked back at the shore, realizing that I was just about 50 meters out.
What the hell? I thought to myself.
A chill ran up the back of my spine as the implication set in. It was a different kind fear than what I was used to. An abstract fear. Something I was completely unfamiliar with.
I stood still for a moment. For some reason, I was hoping that my mind had somehow conjured up the whole thing. That I’d been seeing things. A visceral hallucination.
Or maybe I was just too scared to move. Maybe they were just waiting for me to swim away, and they’d grab onto my ankle with their clammy hands as soon as I tried.
I’m not sure how long I waited. It was probably under a minute, even though it felt like far longer. I didn’t even know what I was waiting for. But then it happened. A splash from behind me.
I’d never swam faster in my life. As I got within ten meters of the shore, that… thing finally caught up. Its hands were cold and scaly as they wrapped around my foot. I began thrashing wildly, eventually managing to kick it off in desperation. During the struggle, I caught of glimpse of it. The pale moonlight could only illuminate so much, but its features were still something that could hardly be forgotten. Grey, scaly skin. Seaweed-like hair. Empty eye sockets. An empty, gaping mouth curled into a wide, sadistic grin. It seemed to be laughing under the water, but no air bubbles were rising up.
It took all of my mental strength to not faint on the spot. At that point, the water was only waist deep, so I started running. Thankfully, I got away. I stumbled onto the shore, just about ready to pass out from exhaustion. I stared back at the lake, praying that it wouldn’t walk out.
I watched as the ripples in the water began to fade, before dissipating altogether. The lake surface was once again smooth. Calm. As if nothing had happened at all. For a few moments after, I was inclined to believe it. That the whole was just a horrifying hallucination.
But I couldn’t hold on to that delusion forever. My foot had been cut from when it had grabbed me. There was no escaping the reality. I walked back to the campsite and slept in the truck that night, firmly clutching the shotgun that we’d brought.
I didn’t tell any of my friends about it. However… I made damn sure we steered clear from the lake. I told them that I’d found some used needles and condoms near the shore. That sure as hell did the trick.
I decided to walk into town the following afternoon, just to get further away from the lake for a bit. I entered a small shop to get an energy drink since I didn’t get a wink of sleep the previous night.
I suppose the cashier – an older man appearing to be in his sixties, could sense something in my expression.
“You look like you’ve just seen the Devil, son. You got a story for me?” He asked.
I chuckled nervously and shook my head. “Nah, it’s nothing. Just a… bad dream, I guess.”
The man was clearly seeing through my lies. He grinned, before continuing.
“I’ve been around for longer than you’ve been alive. It’s never just a nightmare. You saw something, didn’t you? C’mon. I’ll believe you.”
I exhaled, before telling him what I’d seen. He listened and nodded, a grave expression on his face while doing so.
“Hang on… let me make a call.”
He went on to tell me about a serial killer that’d been known to lure his victims into the lake by pretending to drown, only to drown them himself once they got close. Apparently, he’d been inactive for some time. But my story seemed to change that fact.
“The police should be around to scan the area soon. You want to stick around for a bit? They might want to talk to you about it. Text whoever you’re with in the meantime, warn ‘em.”
I just nodded.
I didn’t say anything, but that explanation didn’t seem quite right to me.
A serial killer? In other words… just a regular man. It sure as hell didn’t seem like a regular man to me. I tried rationalizing it, though. Perhaps everything that happened was real… and I’d interpreted it wrong. Maybe it truly was just some psycho killer in that lake, and his strange appearance was a product of my frenetic mind.
That was the explanation that I decided to settle on at the time. The cops came and I talked to them, describing exactly what I’d seen, barring the more otherworldly details. They thanked me and began patrolling the area.
To my surprise, it only took a few hours for them to catch somebody.
James Roloson. The notorious serial killer known for drowning people that the cashier had described to me. He’d been positively linked to at least 3 deaths in surrounding towns and had apparently come back for more. The Officers asked me if I recognized him as the man that had tried pulling me into the lake.
But as much as I wanted that to be the case… it wasn’t. I couldn’t recognize him. The only thing that I could remember were those empty eyes and that scaly skin.
I was silent for a while before an Officer chimed in on my behalf.
“You don’t have to answer, kid. This scumbag can’t hurt you anymore.”
I don’t know if I imagined what happened next or what. But I could swear that right before James was dragged into the cop car, he grinned at me something sinister. A grin that I nearly recognized as the one that’d been leering at me from beneath the water. But it disappeared from his face just about as quickly as it appeared.
I shivered and made my way back to the campsite. The cops said they’d stay nearby in case anything else came up, which did allow me to relax. But only a bit. At that point, I was just counting down the minutes until we were supposed to leave the next morning.
Our last night would’ve been fun, I suppose. Curtis had managed to convince the girls at the other campsite to come hang out with us. They were cute as well. Still… I couldn’t really enjoy anything. I couldn’t stop thinking that… person. But he was gone right? There shouldn’t have been a reason to worry so much.
But no. I couldn’t stop.
“Man, you’re looking down.” Curtis said, grinning at me. “Still thinking about Angela?”
Angela was my ex. And no, I wasn’t thinking about her, for obvious reasons.
“I know what’ll cheer you up,” he continued. “Ladies! What do you say we take a dip in the lake?”
They all cheered at the idea. I could feel my stomach sink.
“Dude, I told you that lake’s dirty as fuck. What if we step on a needle or something?”
“Oh, come on dude. We have sandals for a reason.”
Before I could get another word out, he’d taken off, along with everybody else.
“C’mon man!” he yelled back at me. “I hate seeing you like this!”
I took a deep breath, before pulling myself up.
Nothing to worry about, I thought. Nothing… to worry about.
I didn’t even believe what I was telling myself.
Regardless, I caught up to the group and found myself standing back in front of the lake.
Even though everybody was having a blast, I still couldn’t. I just kept scanning the water. I was looking for any signs of it. Him. Whatever the hell had grabbed me that night.
“Hey,” one of the girls nudged me. “You drink too much or something? If you need somebody to hold your hair back while you puke, I’m your girl.”
I laughed. “I’m fine. But I’ll keep that in mind.”
As the night went on, I began loosening up. Midnight passed and nothing had happened. Everything seemed fine. I was even starting to enjoy myself.
But then… it happened again.
“Hey! What’s going on over there?” Ahmad yelled out.
I followed my gaze to his.
“Oh, no…” I muttered.
Somebody was drowning, about fifty meters away from us.
“Jesus,” Curtis said. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll get him.”
“No! Curtis, don’t!”
“Dude, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.” He replied.
“The water… it’s… it’s shallow! That person’s not in trouble!”
“Jeez man, do you hear yourself? I’m not gonna let him die, alright?”
I couldn’t do anything else before he swam off. I went after him, but he was far faster than me. Just like before, the drowning man disappeared as soon as Curtis reached him. He stopped swimming and stood confused.
“What the hell?” he said. “Where’d they go?”
“Curtis!” I was basically shrieking at this point. “Get away from there!”
I blinked once and he was abruptly dragged into the water.
What happened next was too blurry for me to recall exactly. I remember diving after him, only to find no traces of anybody. The cops came at one point, due to how much I was yelling. We searched hours for him, scouring the lake as thoroughly as possible. It wasn’t even that big. If he was there, then he should’ve turned up.
The cops had a hard time coming up with an explanation, of course. They settled on drowning as the cause for the time being. Not that it made any fucking sense.
Curtis knew how to swim. The deepest part of the lake was only 177 cm. He was 186 cm tall. As for James… well he hadn’t escaped. He was in custody while it happened.
I can’t explain what transpired that night. It might be something beyond understanding at all. I just… I can’t believe I lost a friend that night.
I drove back out to that lake a few nights ago. The entire place was empty. I’m not sure what I was trying to do. What I was trying to learn, if anything at all.
I stared out at the water for hours, well past midnight. The drowning man didn’t make another appearance. However, something did wash up on shore. It was almost like a taunt.
A sandal. The same one Curtis was wearing that night.
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Credits
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