Vanity

The woods were dark and eerie, breaks in the treetops giving way to the moon’s gentle beams. The silence of the late summer’s night was broken by petrified screams and footsteps as they thundered through the air. A young man sprinted through a small clearing in the woods, his shaggy hair falling into his eyes. His bare chest being scratched up by thistles and pine needles as he ran through them.

The cool breeze created goosebumps on his flesh as he hurdled over a fallen tree, a sneaker skidding across the bark. He caught himself before he hit the ground, ducking behind a tree. His heart hammered in his chest as he tried to calm his panting. Glancing around the tree, he gave a heavy sigh of relief.

I lost her. He thought to himself, nearly crying tears of joy, but relief quickly gave way to terror as a branch snapped somewhere nearby. His eyes widened frightfully, his heart beginning to beat against his rib cage.

“Avery?” An alluring female voice called, chilling the air. “Avery, where did you go?”

Avery ducked down, peeking out from behind the tree. In a ray of moonlight, he saw her. Dirty blonde hair knotted with leaves and twigs, her pale alabaster skin smeared with dirt, her clothes in tatters, and in her hand, much to Avery’s dismay, was the bowie knife she had somehow pulled out of thin air.

The girl turned her head quickly and Avery spun himself back around, planting his back against the tree. “Avery, it’s cold out here…please. I just want to go home. Take me home, Avery!”

He froze in place, tears stinging his eyes as he heard her fright. A part of him yearned to comfort her, but he fought it. That’s not Nessie. He reminded himself, taking deep controlled breaths.

“Avery!” the Nessie lookalike screamed. “Take me home! You brought me out here and this was cute and all, but now I wanna leave. I want to go home! I want my mom!”

Without a second thought, Avery took off again. As he sprinted through the trees, he heard a frustrated scream from behind him. He forced himself to go faster, his lungs and legs screaming at him to stop. Through another clearing, he spotted the lake where he and the real Nessie had parked for a late night picnic on the dock.

“Avery!” A shrill scream echoed through the air. He hurried out of the woods, making his way towards the dock where they had set up their picnic. He glanced behind him, slowing to a walk when he saw he was no longer being followed. The boards creaked beneath his weight and as he got closer to the blanket, he stopped.

In the light of the full moon, he saw her. Vanessa, or Nessie, as he so dotingly called her laid still on their blanket, the white of her eyes frightfully shining. Tears filled Avery’s eyes and a lump began to form in his throat. She looked much different compared to when she was chasing him in the woods. He knelt at her side, touching her now cool face.

Her azure eyes showed no life and Avery closed his eyes, shedding a few tears. Nessie’s face had three long slashes carved into her cheek and blood had dried running down her neck. The tears fell silently down his face and he closed her eyes, unable to look at them any longer. He jumped as someone’s singing seemed to drift across the lake. He looked around, expecting to see the not-Nessie coming out of the woods.

He didn’t see anyone and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. As the singing continued. Avery couldn’t make out the words, but he knew it wasn’t a good sign. He quickly found the jacket he had wrapped around Nessie earlier in the night. He fished the keys from his pocket and rose shakily to his feet, scanning his surroundings before making his way off the dock.

Avery walked towards his truck, the singing fading away. He began to fiddle with the keys, trying to find the right one, when he heard a branch snap somewhere behind him. He turned and came face-to-face with not-Nessie.

She gave him a darkened smile, black blood smeared over her teeth. Before Avery could react, she sunk the bowie knife into his abdomen. He emitted a soft grunt as she withdrew the knife. He knelt over, his hand pressed against the knife wound. The pain rippled through his body as he slid down to the ground. He laid his head back against the truck door, looking up at the not-Nessie.

“Why?” He asked softly, feeling his sticky blood as it warms his skin.

Not-Nessie knelt down, twirling the knife in her hand. His blood gleamed against the silver of the blade in the fading light. “A girl’s gotta eat,” she said with a distorted version of Nessie’s voice. She stabbed the knife into Avery’s chest, causing for him to gasp in shock. She watched as the life died in Avery’s eyes and her grin only grew as she withdrew the knife from his chest.

The Next Morning…

Police cars were parked around Avery’s truck, blocking the gruesome view from the onlookers building around the barricades. Amongst the growing crowd, were Clarice Sinwood and Lyndy Bridgen. “Another murder in Chesterton,” Lyndy said matter-of-factly. “Told you this kinda thing happens around here all the time.”

“W-What caused this?” Clarice asked. Lyndy shrugged her shoulders.

”No clue. I can guarantee you they don’t either.” She nodded towards the cops. Clarice glanced around, unable to see passed the officers as they blocked the way. One cop imparticular began to eye the girls suspiciously. He escaped Clarice’s radar, but not Lyndy’s. She discreetly took Clarice by the wrist and slowly led her away from the crowd.

“Where are we going?” Clarice asked, attempting to look back at the crime scene.

Lyndy pulled Clarice close, wrapping an arm around her waist as she whispered into her ear, “There’s a cop watching us. Play it cool.” Clarice’s head whipped forward and they continued to walk without looking back. “We’re gonna turn around and head back towards your place.” Clarice gave a silent nod as they turned around.

They walked passed the crime scene again, forcing themselves to keep their gazes straight ahead. “Do you think he’s still watching us?” Clarice whispered. Lyndy shrugged her shoulders, tossing her chestnut hair over her shoulder.

“Pay him no mind,” she said calmly. “We’ve done nothing wrong. We were looking on like the rest of them.” Clarice nodded her head, biting her lower chapped lip nervously. The walk lasted about twenty minutes before they were walking up the drive onto the Sinwood estate.

The gates opened on their own accord, giving the girls a chill up their spines. Clarice glanced towards the garage, noticing that a door was opened. “Vincent is gone,” she stated. Lyndy followed her gaze and nodded her head in acknowledgment.

“Think the library will be clear?” Clarice shrugged her shoulders in response. It was hard to know when Agnew or Edith would be gone. She’d only been living with her aunt and uncle for four short months and during that time, she’d barely seen or spoken to either of them.

“Agnew may be up in his study like usual,” Clarice said as they stepped onto the front stoop. “As for Edith it’s hard to know when she’s home or not. She doesn’t normally appear when I get home.” They let themselves into the house, kicking their shoes off per Edith’s constant request. The girls hurried up to the private library on the second floor, keeping their voices down to a whisper.

They locked themselves in the library and began to scope out the area. This was official Case File business and having Edith or Agnew overhearing it would put an end to their little club as they knew it. When it was deemed that the coast was clear, they curled up on the loveseat by the fireplace.

“So…what’s the story about that lake?” Clarice asked, bringing her knees to her chest. Lyndy exhaled deeply and laid her head back against the couch.

“Anything really,” she replied sadly as she stared at the ceiling. “Without actually seeing a body I couldn’t tell you. They were loading up two bodies into the truck so who knows what happened.”

Clarice tapped her thumbs together, resting her chin against her knees. “I mean we could consult the books?”

Lyndy’s face brightened up with excitement of digging through the old books containing the town of Chesterton’s history. With a knowing look shared between the pair, they rushed off to find the favored section of the library.

After hours of scanning book after book, Clarice perked up. “Look! There’s a whole section here about the stuff happening at the lake,” she said excitedly. Lyndy hurried over, glancing over her shoulder. There were multiple newspaper clippings decorated with pen ink.

“They’re all about attacks…” Lyndy said in an almost sad voice. “Multiple groups and couples go camping…and they never come back.” Clarice turns the pages and the girls leaned over together to read.

“So…something is in the woods that much is obvious,” Clarice said, her tone unsure. “But…what’s in there?”

Lyndy pointed to another article. “Right here it says there was a survivor from an attack. 1983 there was a group of seven kids who went to a camp out at the lake…sole survivor, Malinda Ann Bachen, was fifteen when the massacre occured,” Lyndy read, looking up at Clarice. “She was sent to Perryweather Asylum for psychiatric treatment after rambling about a monster in the woods.”

Clarice’s eyes widened as connections began to form together. “Look I know that look you’re giving me. Even if we could get out there to see Malinda, there’s no way they’d let us in to see her,” Clarice objected. Lyndy gestured to the articles again.

“Clarice, there’s literally no other living survivors. Anyone who didn’t die at the scene, died later in the hospital. She’s it. She’s the key to finding out what thing is out there killing everybody. We find out what it is, we could stop it.”

“I’m sorry, what?!” Clarice was on her feet in a second, backing away from her friend. “Stop it? What do you mean stop it? We don’t even know what it is, let alone if it is killable!” Lyndy rose to her feet slowly and cautiously approached Clarice.

“Hey…it’s okay. I know you’re scared, but you said you wanted to know the truth about this town. You’re a Sinwood. If anyone should be putting a stop to this thing, it’s you. We have to do something to help, otherwise people are going to keep dying, Clare. Look at those articles, nobody lives. It’s sporadic and messy, which means that whatever it is has to feed as often as it can. It can only come out at night and it’s gotta be anchored to the woods and the lake somehow. We are safe here, but the deaths that happened last night will only deter people for so long. It’s not going to stop people. We have to stop it.

“We don’t even know if Malinda is still locked up. She could’ve gotten out. I mean she’d have to be in her forties now. So, what is the harm in seeing her?”

Clarice stood there with folded arms, glaring back at her friend. She knew she was right. Of course she was right. After all the mayhem the Sinwood family had caused over the years, it was time one of them did something to help fix it. “Okay, fine,“ Clarice said, defeated. “Let’s find her.”

Calling the asylum to track down Malinda Ann had not been as easy as they had hoped. Nurse after nurse kept juggling their call as they attempted to locate the file on their now discharged patient. Malinda Ann was discharged recently, but her file had been loss in a fire that had taken place around the same time. Finding her was going to be next to impossible.

The girls looked through other books in the library defeatedly, sadly flipping through pages when Lyndy came across an old phonebook. She glanced over at Clarice, who had buried herself in the articles about the lake murders, and began to flip through it. Sure enough, she found a William and Genevieva Bachen, the only Bachen’s listed in Chesterton.

“Clarice,” Lyndy said as she hurried over to her with the book. She dropped it in front of her, dust puffing up around them. “Look, I found some Bachens. Maybe they’re Malinda’s parents?”

Clarice investigated the book and rolled her eyes. “This book is from 1994, Lyndy. There’s no way those people are still here,” she protested. Lyndy slapped her hand against the book.

“But we can always look right? I say we head down to the Bachen house and talk with them. Worst case scenario, they moved!” Clarice sighed heavily, knowing Lyndy wouldn’t stop until she got the truth.

“Alright. Let’s go before I change my mind,” she replied defeatedly.

The house hadn’t been too far of a walk, just a few blocks down the road. The house itself could’ve used a fresh coat of paint, but other than that, the lawn had been cared for, the roof appeared to have been recently repaired. So someone was living there. The girls approached the door cautiously and softly knocked on the door.

They jumped when the door opened, revealing an older woman with grey almost white hair dressed in a knee length floral print dress. “Can I help you dears?” Lyndy gave her a toothy smile as she stepped forward, extending her hand.

“I’m Lyndy Bridgen and this is my friend, Clarice Sinwood. We were hoping to speak with Mr. and Mrs. Bachen?” The woman’s eyes widened at the names and she stepped back, appearing ready to close the door in their faces.

As the woman attempted to swing the door shut, Lyndy placed her foot in the threshold stopping her. “Young lady, move your foot,” the woman said sternly.

“Mrs. Bachen, please. We’re looking for your daughter. We believe that the thing that attacked her is back. It’s happening again,” she said in a rushed breath.

“I don’t care!” the old woman shouted back, applying pressure to the door now. “Just leave me alone! You Bridgens are nothing but trouble! Especially that father of yours!” Lyndy’s face gleamed with hurt and Clarice stepped forward, pushing back against the door.

“Mrs. Bachen, I understand. You don’t want to associate with us, but we mean no harm! Please, think about the other mothers. The ones who weren’t lucky enough to have their daughters come home. Two more people were murdered last night. If we don’t find Malinda then we can’t stop whatever is out there murdering people.”

Mrs. Bachen froze and after a few moments she opened the door again. “Two more?” Lyndy and Clarice nodded their heads in response, hoping to get through to her.

Mrs. Bachen stepped aside, allowing the girls to enter her home. The walls were decorated with family photos and the girls could see what Malinda Ann had looked like before the massacre. She was clearly a happy only child with lots of friends as the pictures showed. They sat in the living room and Mrs. Bachen sat across from the girls on a couch while they each took an arm chair for themselves.

“My Mindi was never the same after that night,” Mrs. Bachen said softly. “She was such a sweet wonderful girl…but after that night she was so distant. At night, she’d wake up screaming, having night terrors, was even wetting the bed. She was certain a monster of some kind was at her window…trying to get her.”

“Did she ever tell you what kind of monster? Anything at all would really help us,” Lyndy asked, trying to stop her nervous knees from bouncing.

“I…I don’t think she ever did. Just that it was something that was in the woods when her friends were…” Mrs. Bachen’s eyes began to well up with tears.

“Mrs. Bachen,” Clarice said softly. “I know this is really hard for you, but…where is Malinda?” The crying mother wiped her eyes and drew a deep breath.

“She moved over to Shady Peaks shortly after her release from Perryweather. I have her number somewhere, perhaps I can give it to you.” The girls nodded eagerly and Mrs. Bachen excused herself to find the number.

“I can‘t believe we’re doing this,” Clarice said, releasing a heavy sigh. “Whatever this thing is, it’s bad enough that she had to move just to get away.”

Lyndy reached out, patting her friend’s hand. “I know,” she said softly. “but at least she’s still alive. We can do something about this.” Clarice nodded her head. They both fell silent when Mrs. Bachen came back into the room, a piece of paper in hand. She handed it to Lyndy and sat back down.

“I didn’t even know she had gone out that night. I-I thought she had been sleeping in her bed…and when I got the call the next morning, I-I thought she was gone. One of my sister’s friends died on that lake fifteen years before this incident had happened with Malinda. I was so scared and I rushed there…and she was okay. For the first time in the history of forever, someone survived an attack at that lake…and it was my Malinda. She survived…but yet she didn’t.

“She relives that night every night. My husband, may he rest in peace, thought it was best to…protect her from herself. So if you do reach my daughter…please tell her I miss her.” The girls left shortly after, their walk short lived as Vincent pulled up alongside them.

”A ride, ladies?” He asked sweetly and the girls smiled at him. They climbed into the car and finished the venture in silence. When they arrived back at Sinwood Estate, they barricaded in the library and used the landline to dial Malinda Ann.

A man answered on the other line, “Stabler residence.” The girls looked at each other, confusion etched on their faces.

“Hi, I’m looking for a Malinda Bachen. Do I have the wrong number?” Lyndy asked while Clarice bit her nails fretfully.

The man cleared his throat. “Uh no. You do not. Let me go get her.”

A few minutes later, a woman’s voice came over the line, “This is Malinda.”

“Hi, Malinda, my name is Lyndy. I know this won’t come as a shock to you…but it’s happening again. At the lake in Chesterton. Two more people died last night…my friend and I, we want to end it, but we need to know what we are up against.” The silence on the other side went on for so long, they thought she’d hung up.

“You can’t…I tried, but it didn’t matter. My friends were still dead…”

“Malinda, please. We know you snuck out that night to go be with your friends. You’re the only survivor in the history of the lake attacks. So, you‘ve had to have seen what it was. Do you at least have an idea? Anything that can help us?”

“It changes it’s shape. It turned into one of my friends and started picking us off one by one. It was eating my boyfriend’s face. So, whatever you can do with that, I implore you to try, but if I were you, I’d stay out of those woods. It’s not worth risking your lives.” With that the line went dead.

Clarice and Lyndy made their way towards the self-declared lore section and Lyndy pulled a random book from the shelf. She flipped through a few pages and pointed. “Clare, look,” she called. Clarice rushed over and looked over Lyndy’s shoulder. “It changes it’s shape is what Malinda said...feeds off the flesh of people. It’s a damn shapeshifter, Clarice.” Her finger glided down the page, stopping at a passage. “In order to eliminate a shapeshifter for good, one must remove the head from the body.”

Clarice’s eyes widened in fright and she felt her heart begin to race in her chest. “So, what’s the plan?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“We kill it. Tonight. We’ll take some stuff from the shed and I’ll drive one of the cars down to the lake. We wait until the shapeshifter comes out…and we nail that sucker.”

“Are you insane? You heard Malinda. She’d implore us to try, but it’d be a better idea for us to stay away,” Clarice protested.

“And what? Keep letting the shapeshifter kill other innocent people? How is that fair? You heard Mrs. Bachen, this has been happening for years! Malinda was the first and only survivor in the history of these murders. You saw the clippings! These attacks date back to the early 1800’s and that’s just what’s been documented! We need to kill this thing. Now! Before someone else has to die.”

“And what if that someone is one of us? What happens when it creates my or your face and we can’t kill it? Then we become another set of body bags for the police to pick up the next morning.” Lyndy took Clarice’s hands in hers and met her frightened green eyes with her equally frightened grey ones.

“I know you’re scared…I am too. No one ever said that the brave ones weren’t afraid at least a little. We can do this. We just have to believe. Clarice felt tears burning her eyes and Lyndy wrapped her arms around her, holding her tightly. “We will be okay…I promise.”

A few hours later…

The girls snuck out of the house and down to the garage, keys to the station wagon in hand. Hurriedly, they packed the car with various gardening tools they’d be able to use as weapons. Lyndy drove the car down to the lake as the sun began to set. They parked a short walk away to avoid the patrolling police.

When the sun had fully set and the moon rose over the lake, its reflection glistening, they began to walk. Lyndy carried a hatchet and pitchfork while Clarice carried an axe and a hoe. They slowed their approach to the lake, stopping short of the dock. Their palms were slick and their hearts raced.

Like a cue from a scary movie, the eerie singing began. Clarice’s legs turned to jello and Lyndy felt her heart in her throat. A scream cut through the still air, causing for them both to jump. Clarice began to run towards it, but Lyndy reached out, stopping her.

“These things try to draw you in with imitated sounds of distress. We let it come to us,” Lyndy said firmly. Clarice nodded her head shyly in response, taking a step behind Lyndy. They stared into the woods, waiting. Something danced along the shadows. “It’s trying to form into one of us so it can come out here.”

Clarice nodded her head, tightening her grip on her weapons as something began to move along the shadows. A shape began to step out and both girls took a step back absentmindedly. Staring back at them was a dark haired girl with beady eyes and a frightened look etched upon her face. The girls watched as the girl stumbled towards them, her sniffling echoing through the air.

“You have to help me,” the girl begged, her limp exaggerated. “Something got me in the woods. Please my friend is still in there I can’t…” The young woman fell over and cried into the ground. Lyndy froze as she recognized the young woman. It was almost an exact replica from the photos she had seen in the Bachen house. It was imitating the looks of Malinda Bachen.

She turned to Clarice and whispered, “Dude…it’s imitating Malinda Bachen.” On some sort of impulse, Clarice began to walk towards her.

“Are you alright?” She asked, much to Lyndy’s dismay as she ignored her whispered calls beckoning her back. Clarice dropped the hoe, the thud nearly silent against the grass. “Mindi?” As she knelt down beside the crying woman, it attacked. There was a deep animalistic snarl before it was on top of her, screeching as it clawed her skin.

Clarice’s screams stunned Lyndy, but only for a moment. She charged towards the attacking beast, hatchet raised above her head. She let out a battle cry as she sprinted towards them, ready to behead the creature, but it was too quick for her. Before Lyndy knew it, she was flying through the air, the air knocked from her lungs as she hit the ground.

The shapeshifter saw its chance and left Clarice, whose face was smeared with her own blood, to take a try at the helpless teenager. Lyndy’s screams filled the air as the shapeshifter’s claws began to tear through her skin, white hot heat coursing through her body as the pain nearly overcame her.

“Your screams are music to my ears,” the shapeshifter said in a distorted version of the voice she had been speaking in moments before.

“Hey!” A shout startled the monster and as it turned around, it faced an enraged Clarice. “Eat shit.” She swung the dropped axe with such a force, it became stuck in the beast’s throat. Clarice hung onto the handle, dragging the shapeshifter away from her friend. “You’ve taken enough people away! Just die!”

She was met with a response of gurgles and injured growls. The young girl mustered up the last of her strength to pull the axe away and struck the damned beast again. The gurgling and growls ceased and Clarice stared down with mixed horror and relief. The nightmare was over. She felt her knees weaken as she began to succumb to her wounds.

The axe fell from her hand, landing over the body as she crashed to the ground with a quiet thud. She stared up at the sky, the moon staring back at her. “Clare?” She heard a voice say. “Oh no, Clare!” Suddenly, the moon’s face was replaced with Lyndy’s bleeding one. She had three bloodied gashes from her eyebrow to her jawline.

“I did it,” Clarice whispered, a weak smile growing on her face. “I got it.” Lyndy chuckled and sat her dying friend up in her arms.

“Hell yeah you did,” Lyndy replied, forcing back tears. “but now you gotta stay with me, okay? Just stay with me, Clare.”

Clarice chuckled softly, almost unnoticeably. “Guess I’m not such a chicken shit after all, huh?” Lyndy felt a hot tear roll down her check.

“No, you aren’t. Now stay with me, Clarice,” Lyndy turned her head, searching for someone who could help. “Help! Please someone help!” She looked back into Clarice’s eyes as the life began to wilt in them.

“Sometimes the brave ones are scared…at least you’ll be okay.”

“Clare, don’t you dare. Don’t you dare die on me and leave me alone!” Lyndy shouted desperately. “Please!” She cupped Clarice’s cheek in her hand, blood smearing on her skin. Tears began to fall faster and faster as Clarice’s body heaved with her last breath. Lyndy cradled her fallen friend’s body, rocking back and forth as she sobbed into Clarice’s hair.

In the pale moonlight, the lake began to glow with an almost heavenly light. Lyndy stared in shock, watching as ghostly forms began to manifest before her very eyes. Hundreds if not thousands of spirits began to surround the two girls, crowding around them as they sang some quiet hymn.

Lyndy glanced around, holding Clarice to her chest tightly as she continued to sob. She closed her eyes, burying her face in her hair again, when Clarice began to move. Lyndy jumped back in surprise, a yelp escaping her lips, as she watched her friend sit herself back up again.

“Clare!” she rejoiced, throwing her arms around her friend’s neck as she cried tears of joy. Clarice weakly wrapped her arms around her friend, smiling softly.

“You’re squishing me!” she said, her voice muffled against Lyndy’s shoulder. Lyndy squeezed her tighter and jumped up, bringing Clarice up with her.

“You did it! You totally fricking did it!” she exclaimed loudly. “I never would’ve thought you had it in you, but you did it!” Clarice felt her cheeks grow warm at the compliments and shrugged her shoulders.

“It was nothing,” she replied bashfully. Lyndy rolled her eyes and glanced around, noticing that the spirits had all disappeared without them noticing.

“Not to them it wasn’t,” she said softly.