Why They Weren't Allowed to Swim

Why They Weren't Allowed to Swim {P}

For as long as she could remember, she was never allowed out near the lake.

She'd only ever tried to venture out that way once, but she was quickly snatched up by a neighbor and flung about as she was carried back to her house where she was thoroughly scolded for even thinking about going near the lake when was explicitly told not to, many times.

Don't go near that lake, Angela.

But can I-just a little-

No!

Being scared of the calm lake wasn't something inherent, rather learned and smacked into. Instilling the fear of even looking at the lake in the wrong way for years had been effective; she never stepped a toe out of the bounds that rule had placed her inside of. Not even as far as to ask why she wasn't allowed near the lake.

While the times she'd been allowed to travel out of Transylvania had been few, she'd been allowed to swim and play with the other children there without any fuss, why couldn't she do the same at home?

When she turned ten, rumors started floating around her school, somehow evading the ears of their nosy mentors. The rumors ranged anywhere from man-eating beasts that lived in the lake waters, waiting to munch on the toes of the children dull enough to step foot into it, to magical creatures with the likeness of mermaids granting wishes on nights of the full moon at precisely 11:11 at night.

The more she heard the rumors, the more the little curious girl that had been beaten and torn down started to sprout through, planting a little devil in her head.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Her friends started going straight from school and to the lake they'd also been banished from, sitting around merely to peer into the always-calm lake waters. They always came back empty-handed, but they always went, if only to have something to do other than sit at home and watch younger siblings or help sweep the roof.

She'd been asked if she wanted to go a few times, and she was hesitant to say no, but her mother's voice echoed in her head and stilled the hasty agreement that wanted to spill out of her.

It took weeks for her to give in to her desires, finally agreeing to the invite with her hands clasped together in a neat ball.

It was the first time she'd lied to her mother, "I'm going out with Johanson."

The neighbor's son who was three years her elder and had charmed her parents with the first word out of his mouth, taken like gospel. Why would she lie about going out with Johanson?

Because Johanson was going, too, of course. Her personal enabler.

Every day that she went down to the dock, searching for a magical creature she didn't actually believe existed, the more confident she got in her actions. There was a thrill to going behind her parents' backs and she was living for it.

Even though they always came back empty-handed, they were all having so much fun that they kept going back. It was thrilling, more action than they'd ever gotten in Transylvania.

It was all harmless...until Tony Del from the down the road disappeared into thin air. Angela didn't personally know him very well, and while she wished his family all the best, she didn't really think much of it and continued going down to the lake after school.

But he wasn't the last.

Soon, Transylvania was in an uproar. Children were disappearing left and right and authorities had nothing to go on.

First, it was Tony.

Then it was Johnny, Celia's little brother. And then Suzy and Leo, top of the class. Brian and Caydence, the Folker twins. One after one, they were disappearing into the night and leaving nothing for anyone to go on come morning.