Twenty Years Later

A bump on the road sent her head slamming against the window to her left, eliciting a pained groan from the now-awake woman. With evident strain, her hazel eyes fluttered open and followed the rushing of blurry trees on the other side of the cold glass. As a yawn parted from her lips and she blinked away the tears sleepiness had drawn around her vision, Lynn Morris lifted a hand to rub her throbbing head and straightened on her uncomfortable seat.

"Where did you get your driving license, on the bumper cars at a funfair?" she fired at the driver, voice filled with expected irritation.

Mark glanced at her reflection in the rear-view mirror to meet her frown with a lopsided smile which showed his dimples. "Good morning to you too, sunshine. Glad you can join us on this fun day. See, we're about to reach our destination in the middle of fucking nowhere!"

Glaring at his blond head, Lynn ran a hand through her dishevelled hair and pursed her lips.

"The only reason you aren't happy with this trip is because you aren't going to get laid," Dana chimed in from the seat next to her, not bothering to lift her dark-chocolate eyes from the book she was devouring.

The moment Mark opened his mouth to retort, Lynn was quick to put her earphones in and spare herself the pain of having to listen to their bickering again.

Out of the corner of her eye, she took a disinterested glance at their dramatic show. Dana kept her gaze on her book, but the prominent scowl on her plump lips spoke of Mark's success in averting her attention from the hypnotizing words. Her round glasses slipped along the length of her nose, before she lifted her bushy head to send another string of insults.

Placing her hand under her chin, Lynn turned away from the idiots she had chosen as friends and let her surroundings take a hold of her mind. Pine trees laughed at her demise as they rushed by, getting lost in a sea of green and brown. The sun glared at her from a cloudless sky, slipping into her eyes every time the bumpy road made the car jar violently.

As her frown deepened and her brain stopped processing what her eyes were catching to create alternative realities which didn't placate her exasperation, Dana demanded her undivided attention. Not satisfied with waving a hand in front of her, she shook her shoulder roughly and pulled out an earbud.

"Earth to Lynn, are you operative?" she asked in a taut voice when said woman snapped out of her trance, suddenly realizing they had stopped.

"Depends. Are you done making a scene?"

Dana rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Yeah, Casanova gave up after realizing he was just digging his own grave."

Humming in understanding, Lynn shoved the earphones into her purple bag and opened the car door to let the summer breeze welcome her to the beautiful landscape she had seen in many pictures. The backside of the house blocked the mesmerizing view that — she knew — spread on the other side, but before she could step around to take it all in, another car pulled up next to where she was standing.

"You look like a walking dead, Lynn!" shouted Oliver as he stepped out of his bright-red Renault Megane, slinging his big rucksack over his shoulder before closing the door.

As the bulky man walked up to her, Mark chortled behind her. "You were dozing off again, Morris. What's going on with you today? I'm missing your sass."

She met his amused, forest-green eyes with an unimpressed stare. "I had to do an extra shift at the hospital yesterday, and when I got home at two in the morning, my neighbours' new-born was crying. I'm pretty sure the little shit was still at it when you guys came to pick me up."

"Sammy? But he's adorable," commented Oliver, who knew him from running into the couple on the street, when little Sam was soundly asleep.

She huffed, unamused. "When he's quiet."

"He must be quite a special baby if he's managed to keep you up all night, considering not even Mark's obnoxious snoring can wake you up," Dana chimed in, casually leaning against Mark's grey Ford Focus with a secret smirk.

Fair enough, Lynn thought before taking a look around. "Where is the troublemaker?"

Oliver's relaxed expression changed to aggravation as soon as her words left her mouth. "After spending the whole day singing every existing song by 'Backstreet Boys', which I didn't mind at first, Nick ran out of the car as soon as we saw the house. Said he couldn't wait and didn't have time to, I quote, check if the house is clean enough for my ass."

Biting back an amused smile, Lynn accepted his answer and joined the rest in the task of getting their stuff out of the boot of the cars. 

Two minutes later, she was carrying a small fridge filled with bottles of German beer and her purple rucksack dangled from her shoulder. Her friends had already started their way towards the front of the house, which meant she was finally allowed to become acquaintances with what would be her surroundings for the best days of her life.

"If you had told me the house we were renting was six hours away, I would've supported Mark's idea," grumbled Dana as she locked the car and started dragging her small suitcase across the green grass.

Lynn scoffed. "Bullshit. Take a shower and grab a beer; you'll feel better once you do."

Her feet dug into the grass as she stopped, finally coming face to face with the reality she had been dying to visit. A dream come true thanks to the owner, who had been kind enough to lower the initial price so they could rent it.

Tilting her head towards the brightest sky she had ever laid eyes upon, her hazel gaze fell prey to the battle of colours slowly awakening as sunset neared from a distant horizon. The last rays of the daylight glided across the crowns of the trees to reflect on the surface of the lake, sprouting a sensation of pure peace that melted away her previous exhaustion. 

Relishing into that feeling, Lynn took a deep breath and let her senses drown into the smell of pinecones and pure air.

Next to her, Dana breathed out her approval. "I could get use to these views. I don't think those knuckleheads said it, but thank you for making these holidays possible, Lynn."

With a shake of her head, Lynn replied, "I just found the advert."

"...And begged the old lady to lower the price so Nick could tag along, and met up with her after hundreds of emails to get the keys. Remind me, what did she say about the lake?"

Lynn tilted her head, observing the quiet lake as she recalled the strange meeting with the owner of the house. "Don't touch the lake. She strongly believes it's cursed."

"The fact that you didn't voice your thoughts or laugh in her face was probably the reason she gave you the key to the house," her friend asserted with a knowing look. "So in the end, you did make this possible."

What Lynn never told them was that something about that old lady had stopped her from doing just that, that something in her words had opened a gate in her mind. Mrs. Houston hadn't spoken like a woman whose brain had long since started malfunctioning, or like a person whose days out of the mental hospital were counted for; she wasn't crazy, just visibly sorrowful.

"Lynn?"

She forced a smile and shook her head. "I just want to look at this for another minute. You can go inside. I gave the keys to Mark in case I was still asleep when we arrived."

"Worst idea ever. You know his clumsy ass could've dropped them into the toilet at the petrol station."

Her hazel eyes followed Dana as she rushed towards the house, not paying mind to the suitcase as it tripped over small rocks. Contrasting stones of different shapes and pale colours decorated the walls, and a wide chimney broke through the sloped roof. Wide windows invited sunlight in, and a couple of sofas with a glass table in between had been neatly-placed in a small porch.

A sudden urge to free her feet from the tight hold of her shoes rushed to her heart, and she crouched before the hypnotizing waves that a playful gust of wind had created on the clear surface. Barely processing what she was doing, Lynn placed the small fridge on the grass and faced the inviting lake with a purpose which had been carved into her mind, responding to the silent call of a disembodied voice.

She took a step forward, feeling how the wet dirt beneath the grass dug inside her toenails. It would've made her grimace had something else not caught her eye, making her discomfort fade into uneasiness.

There was someone in the lake.

The retreating sun sent a final glare into her eyes, temporarily blinding her, but as the glowing orb claimed the horizon, the person in the lake took a familiar shape. She could've been able to recognize Nick's red curls anywhere, along with his lanky arms as he turned around to wave at her.

"Don't tell me he's gone in there to take a piss," she muttered under her breath, yet there was no surprise in her voice.

It wasn't his fault; not really. Life hadn't treated him well; his parents abandoned him when he was only five, and he had tried to fill the void they left with the funny gnomes living in his aunt's garden. He had introduced them to Lynn after meeting her at university, but the girl had only come across a measureless amount of marijuana. No comments had ever been made.

Nick kept waving at her, as if he wanted her to dive in.

Yeah, I don't think so.

Casting a glance downwards, she noticed some small beads of water trailing her bare feet and followed the tears until they got lost in the shore of the lake. Her lips pursed in thought; she hadn't realized she had stepped in.

Don't touch the water, repeated the heavy voice of Mrs. Houston in the back of her head. 

"Lynn, come on! Dive in!" came the distant shouts of Nick, echoing in the air around her.

"But it's just water," she whispered to herself before lifting her head to face her strange, yet lovable friend.

An uneasy feeling crawled up her spine.

There was no one in the quiet waters, only the traces of some underwater animal as it made the lake whisper to the grass beneath her feet.

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Word count: 1.822

Total word count: 3.843