Hot Spring

Part 3

"Let's go out in the boat," Jessica said around 11 a.m. "Being on the lake will be so relaxing."

"What about the face you saw in the window?" Sue said, surprised Jessica wanted to leave the cabin so soon after their scare the night before.

"I must've been tired," Jessica said, shrugging. "I'm not used to being in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone service. I think my imagination was getting the better of me."

Sue nodded, and they decided to go out on the lake.

"It's so quiet here, it's just really therapeutic," Jessica said, as they drifted on the lake in her aunt's small boat. They heard birds singing and calling to one another, and the soft lapping of waves hitting the sides of the boat as they rowed from time to time. It felt like they had entered a place out of time, or perhaps they had gone back in time, when the natural world was all there was, before human beings manipulated and declared dominion over nature.

They were heading back to the cabin, lulled into a sleepy, dreamlike state by the calm peacefulness of their environment when an irritating, buzzing sound startled them from their reverie. Jake barked, jumping up from where he'd been curled up in a corner of the boat, napping.

"It's okay, boy," Jessica said, petting his head.

"What the hell?" Sue asked, looking around and listening to try to pinpoint the source of the sound. "Is that...?"

"A chainsaw," Jessica said, her serenity disturbed and transformed into anger. "I thought there weren't people for miles around."

"Yeah. That's unfortunate," Sue said, rowing more quickly now to get back to the cabin. "Just when we wanted to get away from it all. People annoy me."

"Tell me about it," Jessica muttered. When they reached the shore, they stopped short as they heard a thumping sound from the woods.

"What now?" Sue asked, rolling her eyes. "That doesn't even sound that far away."

"I know," Jessica said, wondering if they might have to cut their vacation short. It sounded like someone was cutting down trees somewhere in the woods. Destroying the environment along with the peace and quiet they had been enjoying.

"Maybe someone's building a cabin?" Sue asked.

"I don't know. But I hope it stops soon," Jessica said.

That evening they made popcorn and started watching a DVD. Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. One of Jessica's favourites. But she couldn't focus on it tonight; something was nagging at her mind. She had to call her aunt. She needed to know about those weird motivational sayings stuck to the walls and ceiling. It creeped her out.

As she dug in her purse for the number, Sue said, "I forgot to tell you, there's something weird I found in my room. This picture, of a tattoo. A rose, with a snake wrapped around it, on someone's arm. But the picture looked like...I mean it looks like the skin was cut off the arm before the photo was taken."

"What?" Jessica had only been half-listening, but what Sue said sounded disturbing. "Can you repeat that?" She'd finally found her aunt's number in a zippered part, inside of her purse.

Sue sighed. "Ok. I'll say it again. I found a photo. Of a tattoo on some skin, but it looked like the skin had been cut off before the photo was taken."

"Show it to me."

She followed Sue to her room, where her friend pulled out the photo from a drawer in the bedside table.

"See?"

The tattoo was indeed of a rose, with a snake wound around it. The skin that displayed it was brown and wrinkled, maybe dried, and cut expertly in a perfect square.