Games at the Lake

The night was dark and dreary with a seemingly never-ending rain pouring from the heavens. The rain had been pouring for days now, and all of the trees have lost their leaves as the cool Autumn air moved in. The city streets were pretty much bare as most people tried to stay out of the rain. The only people out were bar hoppers and partiers, which means when someone gets kidnapped in the middle of the street no one notices or seems to care.

It was on this very night that Katrina Norton realized how true that is and how cruel the world can be. She was an average woman with nothing to distinguish her from any other woman on the streets. This means she has always done well at blending into crowds and not being noticed. This is sometimes a good thing, but this is also a bad thing because people would not notice if she suddenly went missing, which is exactly what happens on this dreary cold night.

One minute Katrina was walking out to her car after a long shift at the local bar, just wanting to get home and shower, and the next minute she was being grabbed from behind. She had heard footsteps following her to her car, but she thought nothing of them. She just figured it was the drunk that got a little too handsy with her, but she panicked nonetheless when she was grabbed. As she struggles, there is suddenly a cloth covering her nose and mouth giving off a foul smell that makes her head spin. As everything fades to black, she sees a van drive up and open its back doors right in front of her.

“Hey, guys, I think she is starting to come to,” a male voice says as Katrina starts to regain consciousness. She can hear many people around her and struggles to open her eyes. The feeling of so many unseen people around her sets her on edge and makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Her head feels a little fuzzy and heavy, but she forces her eyes open and looks around her after sitting up.

She is laying on the ground, and six men are standing around her. Behind the men, she can make out a large mansion, and all around them is a thick forest that looks never-ending. Everything is cast in a gray hue as the sun is just rising and trying to shine through the clouds. The rain has finally stopped, but the clouds are still thick enough for it to start raining again.

“Hello, beautiful,” one of the men says, squatting down to be at eye level with Katrina. She flinches back, not liking the look the man is giving her. “What’s your name?”

“According to her ID, her name is Katrina. I knew you had a sweet tooth, Gregory, but you didn’t have to get us a Kit-Kat to enjoy,” another man said.

“Oh, shut up, Eric. I grabbed someone who would not be missed,” the man who must be Gregory said, smacking the back of the head of who must be Eric. While these two are arguing, the man in front of her keeps trying to reach out and touch her, but she keeps flinching away from him. “Charles, leave her alone. She isn’t here for you to play with.”

“Isn’t that exactly why she is here?” the youngest-looking man in the group asks, looking around.

“Michael, I’ve told you many times now that we don’t play with our guests,” another man said.

“Your son is not ready to be a part of this, Patrick,” the oldest man says.

“My son is ready for this. I’ve told you this many times, Anthony, and it was already decided to let him join,” Patrick says, getting pissed and dragging Michael off to the side.

The whole time the men are arguing, Katrina is looking around, trying to figure out what is going on and where she is at. There is absolutely nothing around that can show her where she is, no house number, nothing.

“Where am I? Why did you bring me here?” Katrina asks, moving to stand up but stopping when the men all give her a hateful glare that promises pain.

“We are going to have some fun and needed a volunteer to help us out,” Charles says, smiling up at me.

“I didn’t volunteer for anything,” Katrina says with some sass in her voice. She was getting quite fed up with what was going on and that no one would tell her why she was there.

“Hey, guys, this kitty Kat has claws,” Charles says, causing all of them to laugh and making Katrina mad.

“Let’s just get this started. It’s starting to rain again,” Andrew said, zipping his coat up.

“Andrew is right. The weather is getting nasty again, so let’s get this started,” Eric spoke up. “Charles, help me get the stuff ready.”

“Get what started? Why am I here?” Katrina asks as all of the men seem to start getting themselves ready for something. Katrina’s blood runs cold when she sees Charles start handing out guns to the other men. Katrina gets up very slowly to not draw anyone’s attention. Once she is up, she turns to start running down the driveway, but Patrick is standing right behind her.

“Where do you think you are going?” Patrick says, drawing the attention of all the other men.

“I’m getting out of here. You people are crazy and clearly up to something not good or in my best interest,” Katrina says, trying to get past Patrick but failing.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t let you leave that way,” Gregory says, making Katrina turn back around.

“Why not? I don’t know who you guys are, and I want to leave,” Katrina says, frowning when several of the men laugh.

“Oh, we’ll let you leave,” Charles said with a cruel smile on his face that made Katrina’s skin crawl.

“Yeah, if you manage to survive,” Erik said, causing the whole group to laugh and give her creepy smiles.

“Survive?” Katrina asks, starting to slightly shake as a cool breeze picks up around them, whipping her hair into her face.

“You see, we brought you here to play a game with us. We will give you a five-minute head start into the woods over there, and then we will follow you. If you can manage to evade us and live through the night, we will let you go,” Gregory says as the clouds let loose and rain starts pouring.

“If you can manage to stay alive that is,” Erik says, earning a laugh from a few of the men.

“What do you mean by that?” Katrina asks, hugging herself as she feels a deep chill start to set in. The chill is partly due to the temperature dropping as the rain and wind pick up, but it also has to do with the fear that sets in.

“He means this is a game of cat and mouse, well cats and mouse. Sorry to disappoint you, kitty Kat, but in this game, we are the cats, and you are the mouse. All you have to do is stay alive. I hope you can dodge bullets and have nine lives,” Charles says, smirking at Katrina while strapping his gun to his back.

“I’m not playing any game with you. I’m leaving,” Katrina says, moving to try and get past Patrick again, but Patrick stops her and shoves her hard. Katrina gasps out when she hits the ground and starts to feel something warm on her hand. She looks down and sees that there is a large scrape on her wrist that is bleeding.

“We’ve already told you, you are not leaving that way. Now I suggest you get up and start running. I would hate for the hunt to be over before it even began,” Patrick snarls, making Katrina look up at him only to see his rifle pointed right at her face.

“We’ll start the five-minute count down as soon as you get up, so I suggest you get started and be quick,” Gregory says, making Katrina gasp and look around at each of the men. Each one of them is smirking at her and holding their rifles in their hands.

She frowns and quickly gets to her feet, feeling a little unsteady from being knocked down. She looks at Gregory, who seems to be the leader of the group, and he taps on his watch while giving her one of the evilest smirks she has ever seen.

Katrina frowns and quickly takes off in the direction the men are telling her to go. She tries to run as fast as possible, but there is so much underbrush that she keeps tripping, making her go slower than she should. After she gets far enough to no longer see the mansion or hear the men, Katrina stops to take a breather and take a look around her.

“I have no idea where I am or which way to go,” Katrina says to herself, trying to see through the thick grove of trees, but with there being no sunlight it is impossible. “I need to figure out where I am and how to get out of this.”

Katrina starts to slowly and carefully make her way further into the woods and starts to feel worried about being forever lost, but a sudden flash of light causes her to freeze and hide behind a tree. At first, she thought it might be a flashlight that one of the men was holding, but the light was the wrong color to be from a flashlight.

After waiting a few moments, Katrina slowly and carefully peeks out from behind the tree in the direction of the light. It takes her a moment to find it again, but her eyes go wide when she sees a small lake up ahead of her. The only reason she spots it is a flash of lighting reflects off the water at just the right moment. She quickly runs over to the bank of the water and looks around her to try and figure out where she is.

As she is looking around, she starts walking along the edge of the lake, trying to see anything other than trees to give her an idea of where to head to escape. As she gets about halfway to the other side of the lake, she stops and looks around her again. She takes in the sound of the wind stirring up all the fallen leaves and tries to hear any other noises, such as the sound of a road, but she hears nothing. She turns to start walking again when there is suddenly a loud crack behind her, making her freeze for a second before whipping around.

“Watch where you are walking idiot,” a voice that is carried on the wind to her ears says, making her breathing pick up and her heart rate increase. The voice is still rather faint, but the sounds of arguing carry on the wind and are getting louder, meaning the mean are getting closer.

She quickly rushes to the other end of the lake from the sounds and starts looking around to try and find somewhere she can hide from the men. Everywhere she looks is too small and won’t hide her, but she keeps looking. As the voices get louder, she starts to panic. When she suddenly sees the beam of light from a flashlight, she decides the only place she can go is into the water, hoping they won’t follow her into the water.

The temperature of the water is just about freezing, and Katrina can feel the cold instantly seep into her bones in the blink of an eye. A part of her brain is screaming at her to get out of the cold water, but she ignores it and goes further into it. As she swims to the center of the lake, she sees the men come out of the tree line and spot her.

“Who’s going to go get her?” Charles asks, getting dirty looks from all the other men.

“The water has to be cold, so I’m not going in there,” Andrew says. The men start to fight amongst themselves, but Katrina blocks most of it out as she tries to keep from going underwater. The cold is steadily making her muscles start to not cooperate with her, so it is getting harder for her to stay above the water.

“Guys, look at her. The coldness of the water is getting to her. She will eventually have to leave the water herself, so why don’t we just split up along the lake. That way there will be someone there no matter where she comes out,” Gregory says, which catches Katrina’s attention instantly. Katrina watches as the men slowly spread out around the sides of the lake.

With there being only six of them, they have to spread out a good distance from each other to cover the whole lake. Katrina feels a smile slowly spread over her face as she takes in the men around the lake. Katrina starts to access the men to figure out who would be the best bet for taking down first.

For you see, the men didn’t do a good job at picking out a woman to hunt. They picked out the worst possible woman they could. Katrina has been keeping an eye on the men for a while and set herself up to be the one they would pick. She enjoys a good hunt and figured hunting those who hunt others would be the best hunt in the world. She just had to act the part of the scared woman. She even scouted out the area to try and find the best spot to start her hunt.

She wasn’t originally planning to use the lake, but she knows how to adjust her plans. Now to just watch and figure out the best choice, and she didn’t have to wait long. She can see Anthony sitting down and rubbing his one knee, which means he is no longer in the shape to be a part of this game. Plus, Gregory is the closest one to him, so he would be the one that would come running over to help first.

With her prey picked, Katrina lets herself sink below the water. She can hear a couple of the men shout out at each other but keeps to her plan and heads towards where Anthony is positioned. As she nears, she hides in the weeds by the water’s edge so that she can have her head up and watch for a second. Once she is confident that none of the men know where she is, she moves closer to where Anthony is sitting before rushing out of the water at him.

She manages to catch him by surprise and knock the gun out of his hand. He must have it ready to shoot because it goes off as it hits the ground, thankfully shooting away from where she has him pinned. He goes to yell out, but she covers his mouth.

“As your friend, Patrick said, I would hate for this to be over before it even began. That shot is already drawing them near, so I will need to make this quicker than I want,” Katrina says, smiling down at Anthony as water drips over her hair and onto his face.

“What the heck is wrong with you?” Anthony asks as soon as Katrina moves her hand from his mouth.

“Like you have room to talk. You were the one who brought me here. I am just ready to turn this game around. As Charles says, I am the kitty Kat, and I am ready to start my hunt. I just need you to give all of your friends a message for me,” Katrina says, pulling a hunting knife out of her right boot. “You guys should have checked me before letting me loose.”

Anthony lets out a blood-curdling scream as Katrina slowly pulls the blade across his stomach, essentially gutting him wide open. She makes sure to do it in a way that will keep him alive for a little bit and quickly rips his shirt open. Once she has his shirt wide open, she uses Anthony’s blood to write a message for the men to find.

As she finishes, she hears someone crashing through the brush rather quickly on her right, so she takes off into the woods. She gets a little way into the woods and climbs up into a tree that has just enough foliage left to hide her from view. She watches as Gregory discovers Anthony’s body and lets out one of his screams before dropping down next to him. The rest of the men quickly join him, and Michael stumbles off to the side to barf his guts out, making Katrina laugh soft enough to not be heard.

“I don’t have my glasses on me. What does that say?” Patrick says, looking rather green in the face himself.

“Now the real hunt begins,” Erik reads out loud.