The Black Lake

Unintentional Witness

One week later:

     The twig snapped under my feet as I stepped around the tree and out into the only patches of moonlight that lit the forest around me. A rustling in the brush had caught my attention as I had been walking home through a shortcut and I had peered into the darkness, straining my eyes against the dismal light to see what had caused it. Ahead of me sat a small black lake that everyone believed to be haunted and a bad omen. Standing on the decaying docks was a large, burly man dragging something heavy to the water’s edge.

      It was a body.

   The man dragged the lifeless body along the cracked wood of the docks, long blonde hair snagging on splinters and broken wood. A broken face with eyes filled with terror stared up into the moonlight sky in horror, forever frozen in a silent scream. Makeup and lipstick looked like it smeared down her face from tears, mixing with the blood that remained plastered on her face. Blood from her arms and face left streaks on the wood that shone a deep red in the moonlight. Her clothes were torn and bloodied; her shirt was hanging off the side of her body almost ripped in half and exposing her soft underbelly that was ridden with deep slashes and cuts. Blood was splattered over her clothes but you could still tell that they were once designer jeans and an expensive green top. Her jeans looked like they had been made with the now-in-style holes and cuts, but they were far more disproportioned by new rips and tears. One of her high heeled boots was missing off her left foot as she was dragged by the man. Once she was a living human being, but now she was nothing more than dead weight being dragged to her watery grave.

        I couldn’t take my eyes off the silent scream of terror that was so plainly etched into every detail of her face. Her eyes were wild with fear showing more of the whites than normal, and her features were twisted in brutal agony. Her nose looked like it had been broken at an awkward angle and blood and scratches covered almost every inch on her skin down her face and neck.

    I could only imagine how much pain and torture this woman had gone through and it was sickening.

     The stench of the putrid lake and blood filling the air around me was horrid and revolting. My breath caught in my throat and I gagged loudly. I tried to cover my mouth with my hand before any sound escaped my lips alerting the man of an unwanted watcher.

        But it was too late.

     The man dropped the woman’s legs to the rotting dock with a sickening thud and looked up straight into my eyes. I froze in terror at being discovered and thought that I would be next to end up dead and thrown into the black lake along with the woman lying lifeless on the dock. His eyes were like bottomless pits that looked right through as if he could see my thoughts and my soul. My heart pounded in my ears, and my vision blurred as I swayed slightly on my feet threatening to pass out at any second. I could have sworn that the man saw the beating of my heart and wanted to snuff the life from it with the look that he gave me. The piercing gaze that he gave me froze my blood in my veins like ice, impairing me from moving the slightest muscle an inch.

     He took one heavy step toward me and I became unglued, the ice in my blood thawed as adrenaline rushed through me and I turned on my heel to flee into the cover of darkness. . .