Reading At Risk

The Lake House (Part 1)

It was on a fine summer's day. Dad had said we were going out to grandma's beautiful lake house. It was mom's favorite thing she would look forward to every year. She would climb the tallest of trees and drink the sweetest lemonade that was grandma's specialty. Mother had grown up there her entire life. It's even where she met my father. He had come in looking for a decent job right there by the lake. When they laid eyes on each other it was love at first sight. 

Mom had beautiful pale grey eyes that were almost a faint color of blue. She had straight long brown chestnut hair. She was the prettiest women I have even seen in my entire life. Dad said he knew she was the one the moment he laid eyes on her. She absolutely had no history of any kinds of flaws. She had a beautiful pearly smile and a long and slim body type. Everyone would be green with envy, either because they wanted to date her or wanted to be her.

Unfortunately 4 years ago she went missing in the same woods that were behind grandma and grandpa's house. We had tons of search parties scouting the area. Everyone couldn't bear the thought of Sherry the most perfect child that ever walked the planet to have gone missing. Eventually the case went cold no matter how many private investigators we had paid.

We had never gone back because it was to heart breaking to remember what had happened. I thought it was what mom would have wanted. Dad made an arrangement with Gramps and Grans to stay at their house for the month of June.

"Honey? Are you okay? You seem to be awfully quiet back there." Dad questioned me.

"I'm fine I just have a lot on my mind."

"I know this is hard on you but she grew up by that very lake we are about to see in a few hours." He said looking at me through the rear view mirror. "I'm sure she would have wanted you to have the same experiences she had while she was your age"

"I just don't know. We are out here having fun while she could be trapped in someone's basement right now" I grumpily declared. 

"Honey, that couldn't happen." 

"If you loved her, you would be out there looking for her right about now"

I realized what I had said really affected Dad. He went pale and kept his eyes on the road.

"You know I love you Addison" He commented sighing "It's just that we won't always have millions of dollars to spend looking for her. We can't keep looking for false hope. We need to be brave and face the harsh facts."

His words hit me like a bullet. I knew that one day that could happen, that couldn't be today. I stared out the window looking at the foggy forest counting each of the trees. I couldn't really see far from where we were at but I was still able to make out the figures that were mainly just plants and bushes.

I found myself humming along with the radio and soon my eyes started to gracefully shut closed. I tossed and turned. I was in a dark forest were fog had engulfed my sight. I made my way into the cave following a foreign smell. It smelled like rotting meat. I plundered down a deep an dark hole once I had entered the cave.My back had ached as I hit the hard ground and I placed a hand on my lower back. My shoes were soggy and make a slushy sound as I tried find to my way out of there.

It was dark so I had to drag my hands along the sides of the cave. My footsteps echoed down the deep and dark cave. It kept going on and on. The cave walls never seemed to stop forming. The sound of dripping water echoed along with my feet.

"Addison? Are you awake yet?" Dad said shaking my arm.

"Yeah I'm up." I might have lied because my eyes were barely adjusted to the sun.

When we entered the house it smelled different, like bleach. Grandma and Grandpa were sitting around the fireplace with snowman tea cups.

"How my how big you've grown" Grandma commented as soon as we came through the door.

Her tone of voice seemed to be very strange. It seemed as if she was faking it or hiding something. Grandpa stood up without a word. He turned to face me and my father. He had a blank stare and his brown eyes stood still. He had no emotion but I noticed this was the only time this had happened. They would usually greet us with a smile and start talking up a storm. It was too silent so I decided to break the ice a bit.

"Well I'm going to go to the car and grab the luggage..." I quickly said heading out the door. 

I followed the stone path trying not to step on scattered acorns. I stepped on about 6 before I made my way to the car. The breeze started to blow in and it ruffled my hair. I took and deep breath in and out before opening the trunk. I pushed items around and tried to look for my dad's bag. I had no such luck. Before closing the trunk my neck started to tingle. I slowly turned my head towards the house.

Grandpa started at me with the same bland and sorta creepy face. I realized he wasn't looking at me so I followed his gaze which was behind me. I heard a rattling of a chain in the bushes. I squinted trying to keep the sun out of my eyes as I turned around. The bushes had a slight movement to them. I took careful steps towards the bush telling myself everything is okay every step I got closer.

"Sweet pea it time to come help Gran with making pie." Grandma called from the doorway waving to me.

"That's strange..." I whispered under my breath.

I shut the trunk and headed back inside. I kept looking behind me and checking to see if the mysterious thing had come out of the bushes. It was totally still except for the water rippling in the background.

As I walked past the closet and made a beeline for the kitchen I noticed grandpa was gone.

"Hun I think you should stay inside with Gran Gran" She cooed with a weird tone.

As we finished eating dinner I went over to my dad's guest room. He was taking the clothes from his suitcase and gently placing them in the dresser. 

"Dad, is right now a good time to talk?" I asked peeking my head in.

"Sure" He replied simply without looking up from his chore.

"Wasn't Gran and Gramps acting really strange?"

"Yeah but deaths in the family can really shake up a person's thinking. It's probably just a passing fancy." He consoled trying to get me to calm down a bit.

"I guess your right. Night,see you in the morning." I said heading to my room.

"Don't forget at 11:25 we are going down to the lake and swimming!" He called out from the next room.

As I made my down the hallway I was violently grabbed and pulled into a room. I could feel nails digging into my right shoulder. Grandpa spun me around and held on to my shoulders. His hands were shaking badly and his face simply read terror.

"I can't explain right now but I only have little time. Listen to me, trust your instincts. Bad things will happen and you need to be prep-" His sentence was cut off briefly before the end of his statement.

"Gramps? what's going on?  What do you mean bad things will happen?" I said trembling myself down to my knees.

He covered his mouth and shook his head. He looked at me with those eyes that you know some needed you but they couldn't say anything. He raised his finger to his lips and stroked my palm.

"Oh I see you have been spending quite some time with him huh?" Grandma said strolling into the room. The begging of her sentence was very perky and upbeat, until the end of it. "Time for bed Addie, I need to have a little discussion with Grandpa"

I woke up to a scream coming from grandpa.

"HELP! THEY ARE COMING TO GET ME!" His shrieks filled the house as I dashed out of bed.

I fell down on my knees in an attempt to save Gramps. I got up quicker then light and fumbled down the stairs. I looked around and tried to figure out where the sound was coming from. I peered into the kitchen to see a strange shadow dancing across the floor. As the mysterious figure turned a different direction I could see millions of teeth on the outskirts of the creatures face. It had deep deep holes for eyes (or at least I think those are eyes). The slime oozed out from it's body.

Something grabbed me back and pulled me into the closet with a rag over my mouth. I turned terrified to see what had pulled me back. It was Gramps. He passed me a sheet of paper. 

It read "I heard it to."