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The Lake

 https://img.freepik.com/free-photo/view-boat-water-night_23-2150693532.jpg?t=st=1697813655~exp=1697817255~hmac=5fed1650f841ca4992cbaa1953dbf792e3b46a367ad955f93fa808d83f34bc85&w=996

Red, RED! Everything is red, why is it all red!? Eliza’s mind raced as she tried to process what surrounded her. The young girl was overwhelmed by the screams echoing from all directions.

She was afraid. Eliza didn’t know how she got here, or where she was. It looked like her hometown, Peterborough, but everything was red. The lake was filled with blood. The trees, bare and lifeless, crows perched upon them.

Eliza sat in a small wooden dinghy gently bobbing in the lake, hands pressed hard over her ears and eyes shut tight.

“Take me home, please take me home” she chanted.

A cold air began to surround her as she felt five bony fingers slowly wrap over her shoulder. Her eyes shot open as she swung her head around to see the looming figure emerge from the red lake. She gazed up at it in horror as its grip tightened, it wore a black cloak with a hood engulfing the face in shadow.

“Am I dead?” She muttered.

Its gnarled spine protruded out as it arched down revealing its face. A skull, a ram, or a goat. Eyes red, like the glow of a sunset. Ominous yet beautiful. The skull was cracked and weathered, teeth missing and rotted.

It spoke, the voice was guttural, coming from all directions. “Soon”.

“No!” Eliza shouted.

Eliza pulled away from the spindly hand, the grip tightened causing her to cry out in pain. She grabbed the ivory fingers and pulled, attempting in vain to pry them off. The creature shoved her into the lake.

She sank. The darkness of the lake consumed her. Dark silhouettes of tormented humans swirled within the depths, trapped, angry, lonely.

Eliza couldn’t accept this as her fate, she clawed her hands up and kicked her legs. With a final kick she emerged from the nightmare.

Her eyes burned in the bright sun. The cool breeze washed over the pristine lake. Eliza dragged herself into the dinghy, gasping in fresh air. She lay, staring at the cloudless sky, the birds chirping.

“How?” Eliza stammered.

She thought she must’ve fallen asleep in the summer heat and fallen into the lake waking her from the dream.

Eliza sat up and looked around, the sun’s rays dappled through the trees and sparkled upon the sapphire water. She could hear cars in the distance and the chatter of a bustling cafe. What a wild dream thought Eliza.

“Soon”, the gruff voice echoed.

Eliza’s heart began pounding. She looked over the edge of the boat. Nothing. She leaned further. The boat tipped towards the water.

“CAW”, a crow swooped which caused Eliza to jump, capsizing the vessel, throwing her into the water. She emerged.

Red. The screams begin, the air is thick.

She waded in the blood, looking for a way home. Like a spider crawling on her scalp she felt the ivory hand. It had her. She went under. Her eyes wide and mouth agape, screaming as the lake filled her lungs. 

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