Shadows

Sara clawed herself backwards towards the trees. The cold water of the lake lapping at the shore in front of her. Her clothes were soaked. Her hair was a tangled mess from the water and the sand when she had finally made it back to shore. She stared blankly out at the water so dark and ominous. Her heart beating loudly in her chest, though, slowly calming down. What had just happened?

Several hours earlier she had been in a boat with her boyfriend, Dennis, speeding along the lake. He was at the wheel laughing manically as he guided the boat blindly through the dark. Sara sat clutching the side of the boat as if her life depended on it. Because, she thought, maybe it did. Her arm was throbbing where he had grabbed her too tight and thrown her down into the boat. The breeze was causing the loose sleeves on her shirt to pull up revealing lines of bruises that he had placed there. At home that evening she had told him that she was leaving; done with his abuse. Then, she didn’t remember anything. Somehow, he had knocked her out, gotten her in his car and drove them to the lake. She woke up as he dragged her out of his car. She half walked and was half dragged by Dennis to the boat.

She had never been more terrified in her life as she sat there clinging to the side of the boat. What was he doing? Why was he laughing like a psychopath? What was going to happen to her? Her eyes started to get dry from the wind whipping in her face. She looked out at all the shadows that the moon cast across the water. Some of them moving and shifting in the wind. The boat started to slow down. Dennis turned his head slowly to look back at her.

“No one will ever love you the way I love you, Sara. I don’t know why you are acting so crazy and talking about leaving. Neither of us would do well without each other Sara. You are the love of my life. You are just crazy sometimes” Dennis yelled over the wind as he slowed the boat to a stop.

Sara glanced down at her arms. The bruises showing in the moonlight. The places where he had pinched her skin so hard, she had cried from the pain. Telling her the whole time how much he loved her. Love. This wasn’t love.

As she looked up, she noticed the shadow of a tree stretched out across the lake. Its spindly branches looked like a hand and fingers reaching out towards the boat. She wished it was a hand. A hand she could grab that would take her away from here. She used to be scared of shadows in the dark but now it seemed almost welcoming to her.

Dennis turned around. Now that the boat was stopped, he was facing her, maniacal grin a crossed his face.

“Don’t you understand Sara, we belong together.” He took a few steps and crouched down in front of her. He touched one of the bruises on her arm. “You are just too sensitive. You take everything so personally. Everything I do is for you. I know you love me. I know you do.” His touch made her skin crawl. She fought back the feeling to throw up right in his face. He was revolting. How did she ever fall in love with such a person?

“Sara” Dennis said in a whisper. She met his eyes. His blank dead eyes. There was no sense of humanity behind them. He was smiling. The kind of smile warped with the malevolence that filled nightmares. He whispered again, “Will you marry me?” Her eyes widened. Was he serious? Did he really think that she would ever want to marry someone like him? This was crazy. He was crazy. Nothing about this night was going to end ok.

Sara stammered. She struggled to know what the right reply was. If she said yes, would he take her back to shore? If she said no, well, would he...do something unthinkable? Unfortunately, as the thoughts of how to answer rolled through her head he took her silence as her answer. That fake smile disappeared and he abruptly stood and turned away from her. Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. That tree shadow she had noticed before...was it.... closer?

“Don’t worry Sara. I thought you might be too scared to make such a big commitment. So, I have a plan that will make everything alright.” Dennis took a few steps forward and picked something up from the floor. He turned. In his hands he was holding a rope. Sara’s eyes followed the rope to its end. It was tied around a cinder block. The other end that Dennis was holding, it was her. She was sure. He was going to drown her.

“P.p..please don’t” Sara stammered. Finding her voice too weak to speak strongly.

“Oh Sara. My Sara. Don’t you see. This way we can always be together. I will always know right where you are. I will come out here and spend time with you as often as I can. I will take care of you. No one will ever find you. You can rest here in this beautiful lake forever. I will bring flowers out and toss them into the water so they can float above you and you can see the beauty for eternity.”

What. The. Fuck. It was the only thing that she could think. The only words that her terrified mind could create. There in the corner of her eye again...the shadow...it was closer.

“Now come here my sweet Sara. This will be over very quickly.”

He took one step forward and there was a strange vibration that went through the water. It shook the boat. Dennis didn’t seem to notice but Sara did. There, she saw it. The shadow, it was moving. It was proceeding forward like it was alive. It was almost at the boat now. Dennis took another step. The vibration came again and it shook the boat harder. This time Dennis did notice. He knit his brows and looked around. Then his face fell. The look of sheer white horror overtook his expression. Sara looked towards the shadow again and horror befell her face too. The shadow was rising out of the lake. It was the full figure of a hand. Skin dark and pulled taunt and thin over hallowed bones. Nails, long and black and pointed. Before Sara could even think of what to do the hand snatched Dennis in its grip. His shriek of terror was like nothing Sara had ever heard before. He called her name wildly to help him, but she sat there paralyzed. The hand moved backed with Dennis still in its grip. Then it plunged under the water. The motion it made was so strong that it sent waves tumbling through the lake causing the boat to rock so violently that Sara couldn’t hold on. Before she realized it, she was in the water. She plunged underneath the surface into the ice-cold depth of that lake. The frigid water chilling right into her bones. The water. What was in the water? What unimaginable evil could possibly be in this water?

SWIM. Her mind screamed at her. SWIM. Her arms started moving and her legs started pumping. She broke the surface of the water, gasped a deep breath, and then did the only thing her mind could conjure. She swam. She didn’t stop once to think about how cold she was, or about how any second she could become hypothermic and be unable to swim anymore. She just kept going. How long did she swim for? She doesn’t know. At some point her legs began to hit the ground and she stood up and ran towards the beach. When she was fully out of the water she turned to look back and collapsed from exhaustion.

What had just happened?

Before she stood up to walk to the road that would lead her to civilization, to people, for help, she gave one last look over the lake. The same shadows swaying over the water. That thing... that hand...it had saved her from Dennis. Did it mean to help her? Thinking about it now, she no longer felt afraid of it. She looked down at the bruises on her arms again. Sara used to be afraid of the shadows in the night but now she knows the real monsters are always human.