New To The Lake

New to the Lake

A Short Horror by: London Z. Tiller

One night… one night down and this new family is starting to settle into their new home. The family is all down at the table for breakfast… all accept the eldest son. The mother made her way up the stairs and quietly through the hall till she was standing just outside his door… He is sitting in his window sill looking out his window. Actually, he is quite fixated on the lake and doesn’t hear his mother call out to him. She took her son by the hand and for a split second thought she could hear someone singing, but just as soon as it came.... it was gone. Looking up at his mother’s slightly confused face he whispers ‘could you hear the music mother”? To which she quickly replies “I heard nothing child”, leading him to the hall and ordering him the kitchen table. Back to the window she went watching the fog retreat into the lake… A sight she can’t quite make sense of. Moments of brief conversation go on at the table as the eldest son drifted in and of the convo and day dreamed about the song he could hear coming from the lake. Quickly the family all cleared the table and the children all began to make they’re way outside with hope of exploring they’re new home. The eldest stood idly by the edge of the lake as an eerie patch fog began to move across the lake almost as if it heading towards the boy. The other two children continue to play as they’re mother watches over them from the kitchen window. The eldest son just stood there as the lake grew more and more foggy, the water itself looked the bottom of the lake had been disturbed. Again, the song the boy could hear was starting to play again seemingly only to him as no one else seems to hear it.

Noticing the eerie fog rolling in the Mother turned and whispered to the Father ‘bring the kids in will you, there is a fog bank coming in so the weather is about to change’. Stepping out to the front stairs he quickly stops and begins to look around like he is in search of something…. The singing…. The father can hear it too, he looks towards the lake to find his eldest son walking into the foggy water. The Mother burst from the front door yelling out to the son as the Father quickly made his way across the yard and down towards the edge of the lake. The mother began to yell out “there is something in the lake “. There is a hump and a big line of bubbles cutting thru the fog and headed right towards the eldest son who is still slowly walking into the water.

Suddenly the Father could hear the singing again and he stopped dead in his tracks as his wife ran past him and into the foggy waters of the lake, she grabbed her son and rushed back the land and just as quickly as whatever was in the water came…. It was gone and the fog was starting to clear. The singing stopped and the both the Father and Son snapped out of their trance like state wondering what just happened. “What were you thinking “, belted out the Mother as she checked over the child to ensure he is OK. The boy looked up and whispered “She was singing to me mommy, the lady in the water was singing to me….” Shocked and confused because she didn’t hear any singing of any kind, she held tightly to the boy and looked up at her husband…. “I heard it too, the singing babe…. I heard it too “, rushing to get the children in the house the husband tells the wife that the singing completely froze him, he was completely aware in his mind but couldn’t move. All he could do was focus on the singing. Getting the children ready for bed the mother can see the foggy water from the lake out the window and could almost swear she saw a woman standing at the lakes edge just inside the fog over the foggy water. Slowly getting closer to the window to try and get a better view she notices movement just out side the window near the front porch, sliding away the curtains from the corner of the window she can see her husband on the front porch.

Oddly he’s just standing there staring into nothing, the mother calmly opens the front door and whispers his name as if not to startle him. But he doesn’t respond…. In fact, he has no reaction at all, she slowly steps around him and is stopped in complete horror. Her husband’s eyes are clouded to the point she can’t see his pupils. She grabbed him and shook him as she called his name and he snapped to just as she heard a big splash and the fog began to retreat. She slowly turned him and walked into the house passing the “boys’ room“ and heading straight to the kitchen and to the table. The foggy waters of the lake became eerily quiet. After a barrage of questions the wife still doesn’t understand what was happening and thinks maybe she should get help. Quietly she picked up the phone and called the local doctor she met earlier in town and asked “Hello doctor…. Could I possibly bother you for a visit, I believe I need your help Please… my son and my husband are acting strange and I’m worried “the phone goes silent for a few seconds when she says ‘hello’? After another brief moment of silence, the doctor responds ‘are they hearing the song?... if they are hearing the song I’m sorry but I cannot help you and your family’. The doctor with a quivering voice tells the wife she is sending someone that can help and he will be there shortly. The mother lays down the phone and, turns to go back to her husband but…. He isn’t in the chair anymore and the front door is standing wide open with what seems to be the fog from the water drifting eerily into the door and following a trail of water leading to her stairs, the Mother runs frantically up the stairs to check on her kids but was stopped at the top because her husband was standing in front of their son’s door just standing there.

Yelling out to her husband to no avail she burst past him and into her son’s room just in time to see him fall to the floor near the window in the room along with a high pitch screech that came from outside the window, she quickly looks out the window only to see the shadow of someone… or something dive into the foggy waters of the lake never come back up…. Noticing a pair of headlights coming up the driveway the Mother is pulled back into window by her husband asking what’s wrong and what happened. He can see the pick-up truck come roaring into the yard off the driveway and they all head down stairs behind the Mother and Father. Leaving the children just behind the door and stepping off the porch she is met by two women coming towards here. One of the women stopped in front of the family and the other started towards the lake. The woman sharply belts out “has anyone been taken?”

The Mother’s swift response stopped her from issuing a second question,” who the hell are you” she says. Stepping back towards the truck the other one quickly fires back ‘we are the ones hunting that thing, we’ve been trying to catch since it got trapped here. We think it came in through a cave beneath the lake, there are a couple that feed in from the sea... at least that’s what we think’. The husband’s eyes begin to go all foggy again and his head falls back as if he is in some kind of trance, the Mother hears her front door close and looks to check on her children. The woman yells for someone to grab the boy and the other woman puts ear plugs into the husbands ears and he snaps too. The fog is starting to roll in again and the water is getting cloudy just off the shore near the lake dock. The woman screams get the children into the house and cover they’re ears. Suddenly the woman near the truck screams in agony as something pierces her chest and burst from her shirt spewing blood everywhere, the creature lifted her from the ground and then slithered away from behind her. The mother grabs a hold on her children and screamed ‘what the hell is that thing’ as she dragged her children back to the house and away from the creature. The creature screeches again loudly, the woman starts to draw her weapon as she whispers ‘it’s a Siren and its wants to eat your males’, the creature threw the woman’s body and knocked over the wife and family. The siren began to slither towards the house and was right up on the family when it began taking gun fire, the husband retrieved his rifle from the house and covered his ears so he couldn’t hear the siren's song and began defending his family from the creature.

The woman shielded the mother and the children as she too fired at the creature as it screeched in anger and pain, the creature took round after round before grabbing the woman and pulling her away from the family. The husband stopped firing as his family made a run for the house, but the wife… she grabbed her husbands axe from the wood chopping block near the stairs and braced herself to defend her offspring. The husband began to reload and the creature threw the woman at him bringing them both to the ground unarmed, the woman rushed to get to her feet but was impaled by the creature’s massive tail spike and snatched away from the ground. The husband grabbed for the woman and tried to pull her away but the creature clawed him across his back and ripped away his ear covers… The creature began to sing and stopped the husband in his steps as the woman screamed hanging from the creature’s tail. The creature reached for the husband’s throat and grabbed a hold of him lifting him from the ground as he put in no fight under the trance of the siren song, the Siren opened her mouth wide exposing her razor-sharp teeth and slithering tongue… The wife leaps from the stairs of they’re front porch “NOT TODAY FISH BITCH “and buries the axe into the creature's head.

The Siren dropped both the woman and the husband and begins to screech painfully loud until the husband rips his axe away from its head and with one great swing cleaves the creature's head clear from its shoulders as he and the creatures lifeless body fall to the ground. The Siren’s body and head both begin to emit an eerie fog…. Then they both turned to water and fell to the ground leaving no evidence of the creature’s existence. The foggy water of the lake became clear and the fog retreated as the wife helped the woman to her feet, police cars began to come down the driveway. The husband made the call knowing they wouldn’t believe…. What came from the foggy water.