Revenge By The Lake

“…And they were never seen again.” Luca the head jock finished. Only the crickets could be heard as the silence of disbelief set around the campfire.

“What a load of bullshit!” His friend Cody shouted, before laughing his ass off. Everyone joined him.

“It’s not bullshit, my uncle told me it happened to him and his friends around this time twenty years ago. It’s actually a local legend.” He defended, taking another swig of his beer when they all laughed harder.

“Yeah, like ghosts actually exist. I think you’ve had one too many beers babe.” Bailey replied before taking his drink and throwing it in the pile with the other empty cans. “Come on it’s getting late. I want you to give me an orgasm before you fall asleep.” She complained before leading him away like a lost puppy, ridicule completely forgotten. That was information Avery did not want or need to know about her stepbrother.

The rest of the group soon dispersed, leaving only Avery on her log with her thoughts. Her gaze fixated on the moonlit lake. A shiver ran down her spine as she clutched her blanket tighter. She was never one to believe in ghost stories but this one… There was something about this story that stuck with her.

She hadn’t realized how much time had passed until she looked over to the fire that was now reduced to glowing embers. Yawning, she made her way to her shared cabin. She fell into her bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

The adrenaline coursed through her body. Her breaths were uneven as she kept running. They were chasing her like it was sport. She had only wanted a long weekend away from her home life. She looked back for a second to see their silhouettes gaining on her. She could not last much longer.

The branches whipped and stung her arms, legs, and face but she could not stop. Stopping could mean certain death. Looking around as she ran probably wasn’t the best idea, but it was the only way she could think of a plan.

Looking back once more, they were almost upon her. She yelped as her foot caught a root. She tried to break her fall. Unable to twist back around, her back hit first but the force and momentum sent her head snapping back and the world went black.

Avery jerked awake, soaked in sweat. That nightmare had seemed so real. For the first time in her life, she was truly scared. That soon passed to confusion as she looked at her surroundings. How had she woken up on the docks? Was this a prank? No, they were too self-absorbed to pay attention to her, but she didn’t have a history of sleepwalking.

Luckily, she was still in her campfire clothes and not her pajamas. That would have been a mortifying experience. The sun came up in the distance. She exhaled in relief when she realized it meant no one would be awake.

She went back to her room passing someone snoring in the living area. She couldn’t wait to leave her stepfather’s camp and to get away from her stepbrother’s friends. At least nobody bothered her unless it was for making breakfast.

After washing up and putting on her swimsuit and cover, she made her way to the main cabin to make some food. She made some for the rest of the group once she finished her own, not wanting them to pester her later. Making food for twenty hungry teenagers took a lot of time, but she didn’t mind. It gave her something to do and she kind of liked it.

The sun was high in the sky by the time she left the kitchen full of plates of food. She could see the others making their way toward their hangover cure. She grabbed her beach bag and book and made her way to the beach. She laid her towel down, put on her sunglasses, and took out her book with a sigh of content.

A couple of hours passed, and most of the group had joined her on the beach. Some were tanning, some were using her stepfather's jet skis, some were in the water, and the rest were playing beach volleyball. Avery closed her book and got up to stretch. Her body was sore from being in one position for so long. The temperature had also gone up so much she had to take off her swimsuit cover.

“Damn, girl! You got a bod! I’d do you if you weren’t you!” Theo shouted from the volley field. As she flipped him off not paying him any mind, Jill his girl of the month, came up behind him and smacked him up the head.

His buddies broke out laughing. It even got a smirk out of Avery before she went back to reading her novel. Luca took Theo to the side.

“Dude no. That’s my little sister. She’s not like that and even if she was, I would never let you get close. Stay away. You got that?” Luca threatened him. That overheard threat warmed her heart. He wasn’t that bad when he wanted to be. They’d only been siblings the last three years and she was only a month younger, but he was still protective like they’d been siblings all their life. Theo nodded and they went back to their game.

The afternoon went by quickly and the wind started to pick up. Dark clouds could be seen in the distance. A storm was approaching. That sent most packing and leaving camp an hour later. Soon only Theo, Jill, Cody, and his girlfriend Daisy, Bailey, and her twin Mark, Luca, and she were left in the camp.

She wanted to leave but Luca was her ride and they needed to lock up every cabin on the property. To make her life easier she moved her things to the main cabin as did the others. They ate dinner together before separating in the house-size cabin. Later that night they got together to watch a movie since the ragging storm prevented them from making a campfire.

Avery sat down with her popcorn bowl as everyone, other than Theo and Jill, waited for them to show up.

“Where the hell are they?” Grumbled Cody.

“Probably in a dark room doing God knows what to each other, like always,” Daisy replied nonchalantly.

“When’s the last time anyone saw them?” Mark asked. Avery waited a few seconds for someone to answer before she did.

“I think they went to one of the cabins after dinner. Should we go look for them?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Luca reluctantly answered. They split up searching for the missing two. She ended up searching the main cabin with Mark. Shortly after they began, a piercing scream broke the silence. They left their search and sped towards the scream.

They found Bailey in Luca’s arms shaking soaking wet on the porch. He was seething mad. “What is this?” he asked pointing to the side of the cabin. There lay two rocks the size of coconuts glistening red in the light. “Is this a joke? Theo! Jill! Get out here now! This isn’t the time to play Weeping Ripper.” They waited a minute before the duo jumped out of some shrubbery, clutching their stomachs laughing.

“Oh, man. You should have seen your faces!” Theo wheezed unable to catch his breath.

“Haha. Really funny guys.” The sarcasm was prominent in Daisy’s voice. “What did put on the rocks?” She asked as Cody picked one up and tasted the red liquid. Disgusting.

“Ketchup!” Theo and Cody announced. “Jinx! You owe me a soda!” blurted Theo. Avery rolled her eyes and turned back to the living room. The others bickered behind her as they followed. They finally settled down and started the movie. By the middle of the second one, Avery’s eyes grew heavy and she fell asleep.

She regained consciousness as she heard footsteps around her. She felt nothing, which was weird considering she was on the forest floor. She tried to open her eyes. When nothing happened, she tried to open them with her fingers, but nothing happened yet again. She could not move! She was stuck inside her mind while her body was vulnerable.

“Shit!” One of her pursuers screamed from her left. That sounded like a guy’s voice.

“Is she alive?” Another questioned. A girl, this time.

“How should I know?” Somebody else asked.

“Well check her pulse.” Another girl by her feet it sounded like.

“No, you do it! You’re the one with lifeguard experience Lola.” The first boy insisted.

“Fine but she’s your fake girlfriend Oliver.” She heard Lola say much closer than before. That meant that the others were Zach and Kenzie. She heard rustling by her left ear, but she felt nothing. “I can’t find a pulse! I can’t find a pulse!”

“Holy Shit, we killed her. We killed her. We killed Angelica!” Panic filled Kenzie’s voice. No, they didn’t. She was still in there she was just paralyzed.

“What are we going to do? I know we need to go to the cabin and call the cops.” Lola urged.

“Yeah, it was an accident. They’ll believe it.” Zach added.

“No!” Oliver snapped at the others. “We can’t. We were chasing her. They’ll ask questions we can’t answer. Then we’ll get manslaughter. It’ll ruin our chances of getting into college or university. No, we have to get rid of Angel’s body. That is what we need to do.” A silence passed over them for a moment. Angel! How dare he still call her that. He didn’t deserve to call her that. Only the people she loved got to call her by that name.

“How?” Quietly asked Kenzie.

“We’ll put her body in the water. They’ll think she drowned when they find her. Zack, help me carry the body. The girls will get rocks to weigh her body down.” He ordered.

Angelica must have passed out because the next thing she could hear was the gentle waves of the lake. She tried once more to move but she could not.

“Come on, put her in the canoe, then fill her clothes with the rocks. We’ll row to the middle of the lake and dump her there.” Oliver informed them. As they did, she hoped they would realize she was breathing or that she wasn’t cold but none of them did. She would be killed and all she could do was scream in her mind. She was helpless.

They put her in the canoe and rowed for what seemed like hours. She swore she would get her revenge. Even after her death, she would find a way to punish them.

“Goodbye Angel.” Those were the last words she heard before hitting the water.

Avery’s eyes shot open as she held back a scream. That was bad. She’d never had a dream like that, yet it was the second one in the same number of days. Shaking those bad feelings off, she realized she was still on the couch. The morning rays shone through the window.

She went through her morning routine and eventually the twins and her stepbrother came to eat. There were no signs from the other two couples, but no one worried. They always slept until noon. They went through their day cleaning up the camp none the wiser. The only thing was that it seemed the cell tower had been knocked down during the storm. That meant they had no reception, they couldn’t contact the others. They’d show up sooner or later.

“Have Cody, Daisy, Theo and Jill left?” Avery questioned the others as they finished their meal.

“Maybe go check if their cars are still here,” Luca suggested. She did just that and as she came back to tell the rest they were still there she saw four rocks glistening in the dimming light.

“Come on guys! It wasn’t funny the first time, and it still isn’t the second!” She yelled to no one in particular.

She leaned down, swiped the red liquid, and brought it to her mouth. The moment it touched her tung she spat it out gagging. That was blood, real blood. As she stepped back, she saw the blood-soaked grass and screamed. The other three came rushing out as she stood there frozen.

“What is it?” She could not tell who had talked, she was in shock. She lifted her hand and pointed at the bloodbath before her.

“Is that blood?” Asked Mark. She nodded before gathering her thoughts.

“I don’t think your campfire story is just a story.” She said her voice trembling.

“Impossible, ghosts don’t exist. They could have left.” Luca replied weakly.

“Their cars and things are still here and there’s a giant tree that must have been knocked down by the storm, blocking the road out of here.” Answered Avery. “They couldn’t leave. They must be dead because this is too much blood.”

“Well shit! We should call the police and our parents. No way I’m staying here another night.” Bailey took out her phone and tried to call them. “Crap! Crap! Crap! No signal. They must not have fixed the tower.”

“We should probably go back to the cabin and stay there until our parents come and get us. We shouldn’t stay out in the open if there's something out there.” Advised Mark. There were no objections to this logical plan. They gathered their things and went to the living room armed with knives. They remained in silence twitching at every sound that came from outside. Eventually, Avery had enough.

“Luca, can you tell us the local legend again.” She inquired.

“Well long story short, about twenty years ago a girl went missing during a camping trip. They say she drowned during a late-night swim, but she was depressed and bullied at school. A year later when they found her body at the bottom of the lake, they ruled her death a suicide because she had weighed herself down with rocks. Since then, every year there has been at least one missing teenager. A rock with blood was left in their place. Their bodies were never found so they assumed they’d run away and blamed the Weeping Reaper as they named her.” He recounted.

Some parts of the story were really similar to her dreams. She kept quiet as did the others. Eventually, the silence lulled her to sleep.

The smell of wet earth filled her nostrils. Slowly she moved toward the only light in the somber forest. Her feet sunk in the mud and her body trembled with fear. Clouds formed from her uneven breath as her hand landed on the slimy railing leading up to the scarcely illuminated cabin.

Opening the crooked wooden door, a dark murky hall led to a dimly lit room. Dust floated in the air and the floorboards creaked and groaned with each step she took. The lights flickered making the rotten wood look monstrously deformed. In the room’s left corner closest to the door, a tired-looking chair leaned on the wall with a broken splintered leg. Next to it, a rusty old oil lamp sat on its side over a dark viscous oil stain. Upon the wall were rotting shelves dotted with moss and books covered in webs.

On the far wall, a midsize window overlooked the restless lake, shaking its drooping shutters with each blow of the freezing wind. The gruesome room with one tiny hanging lightbulb illuminated with each lightning strike. Below the window were piles of bones and bodies in different states of decomposition.

The freshest being from Avery’s group. Her gaze continued to the right and fell on Bailey’s and Mark’s bodies. Her hand flew to her mouth as she saw Luca being held by her. Angelica, the Weeping Reaper. Avery closed her eyes as she couldn't stomach what was about to happen.

Avery opened her eyes and tears ran down her cheeks as she looked around the living room. Just another dream but they were all gone. She stood and made her way to the patio out front. From there she confirmed her worst fear. Seven stones with blood were now aligned. She crumpled to the ground and cried until she had no tears left.

Sometime later, the sound of gravel crunching under tires reached her ears. She continued to stare at the lake until she was shaken out of her daze. Her mother and stepfather were kneeling in front of her. The other parents stood behind them.

“Avery!” Her eyes went to her mother’s.

“What?” Her voice was raw and weak.

“Where are the others? What happened?” She questioned.

“They’re gone.”

“What do you mean they’re gone?” Her stepfather butted in.

Avery refocused on the lake. “They killed her, so she killed them.” She responded void of emotions.

“Who’s her?” Another parent asked eagerly. She turned to the impatient group.

“The Weeping Reaper.” Some of them turned white as sheets, the others gave her confused looks.

“But that is just a local legend. Ghosts don’t exist.” Her stepfather declared with a hidden edge in his voice.

“She told me this was her revenge on her killers. She spared me because she wanted me to tell you the story.” Avery took a breath before whispering, “She’s here.”

“Where?” They all turned to where she was looking. “Honey, there’s nothing there.” Her mother stated, turning to her husband with a worried look. “Oliver?” She muttered barely audible.

The adolescent turned to her stepfather who was now standing with the others. They paused their conversation as she looked them dead in the eyes.

“She told me to tell you, Angel says hi.”