The Lady of Dark Lake Read online

  “So, what brings the two of you to Dark Lake?” Lady asked after she had finished her bacon.

  “Oh. Hmm.” Otsuya laughed, though Lady wasn’t sure what precisely she was laughing at. “I guess you could say I’m a fangirl.”

  “A fangirl?” Lady repeated. She knew what a fangirl was, but she didn’t understand why this town would have one. “Of what?”

  “Yokai… Like, folklore and urban legends and stuff.” Otsuya lowered her voice and leaned in a little closer so that she could whisper conspiratorially. “Monsters.”

  Lady wasn’t sure what to say to that. The smile on her face grew uncertain. She glanced around the room looking for social cues from the others. “What? Is there like… a festival here or something?”

  Otsuya laughed again. “No, no, no. This place has a history. You don’t know about it? Why would you come here then?”

  “I got kicked off a bus because of my cat, and this was the nearest place to get out of the rain.”

  “Ah, well. That happens, I guess.”

  “Are you here for the, uh, monsters, too?” Lady asked, turning to Doyle.

  Doyle didn’t even spare Lady a glance. He went on eating the food in front of him. “I’m here on business.” It was vague and a sure sign that he didn’t want to elaborate.

  “Don’t bother my paying guests,” warned Ms. Poole.

  “Oh.” Lady straightened up in her chair. “Sorry.”

  “She’s not bothering me,” Otsuya said quickly. She turned to Lady. “You’re not bothering me,” she told her directly like maybe she hadn’t heard.

  “Thanks.” Lady made a point to smile at Otsuya again. She was, easily, her favorite person seated at the table. There was a certain warmness emanating from her. It made Lady more comfortable talking between bites. She wasn’t someone who handled silences well. She got the sense that Otsuya was the same way. “So, what’s there to do around here?”

  Otsuya had finished eating and was now in the process of pouring herself more orange juice. “Well, the local history is the really big draw. There’s not a whole lot outside of that, though. Most of the shops are little mom and pop places, if you’re into that kind of thing. The owners will make it a point to get to know you if you shop there more than once.” She took a sip of the juice she had just poured. “There’s the marina, I guess. People around here like to fish and stuff. There’s the movie theater… But they don’t have stadium seating, and the walls are too thin. You can hear the movie playing next door every time. It’s lame.”

  “Oh.”

  Otsuya nodded. “Yep. This is pretty much my favorite place ever.” She sounded like she meant that too, like she hadn’t just spent the last few seconds giving Dark Lake a less than glowing review. “So where are you from? Where were you headed before the bus driver booted you off the bus.”

  Lady opened her mouth to respond, but Ms. Poole beat her to it. “Are you finished?” she asked Lady.

  Lady looked down at her plate. She had made quick work finishing breakfast and felt no need to go in for seconds. “Um… Yeah—yes, Ma’am. I guess I’m finished.”

  “Then you should get to work.” Ms. Poole stood, abandoning her own place at the table. “Follow me. I’ll show you what’s expected of you. I’ll look after Lion while you’re away.”

  Lady didn’t like leaving Lion but what else could she do? The errands would almost certainly go by faster without him. Lady squatted down and scratched her cat between the ears before following Ms. Poole. “You be good while I’m gone, okay?”

  “Oh, look at that face. How could he be anything else?” Otsuya had gotten out of her chair at the table and was standing next to Lady. She looked eager to have a turn petting the cat.

  “You’d be surprised. Behind that furry little face is an evil, evil mind.” Lady gave her purring cat a peck on the head anyway.

  “Are you coming?” Ms. Poole called impatiently from the next room.

  “Yes, Ma’am!” Lady scrambled to her feet and hurried out through the door Ms. Poole had taken. She wasn’t sure why she was so afraid of the little old lady. There was something about her that commanded respect. As curt as she was, something told Lady she hadn’t seen her in a bad mood yet. Lady never wanted to find out what that was like. She never wanted to be on the wrong side of one of her bad moods. She had promised she would run errands, so that was what she would do.

  Ms. Poole led the way outside. Dark Lake wasn’t quite so dark in the morning. Granted, it was still overcast, but it suited the place, Lady thought. She had never been someone who especially enjoyed the sun. Besides, it made the grass look unnaturally green in contrast. It was soggy beneath her feet as she followed Ms. Poole to a shed.

  “Here.” Ms. Poole pushed the door to the shed open. It groaned on its hinges. Inside, everything was dark. Lady didn’t see a light hanging from the ceiling. It took time for her eyes to adjust a little. Ms. Poole entered, leaned down, and exited the shed with two white buckets. Each had a lid fastened to the top. It was impossible to see what was inside. “You’ll carry these to Ms. Comfrey. She lives within walking distance. I’ll show you. Here.” She handed the buckets to Lady.

  Lady accepted the buckets and proceeded to almost immediately drop them. She was jerked forward by the weight of the things. She nearly fell flat on her face trying to compensate. She might have failed in her errand then and there had Ms. Poole not taken the weight of the buckets into her hands again. “Sorry,” Lady said quickly. “I didn’t expect them to be so heavy.”

  Ms. Poole was frowning. Her eyes moved over Lady, sizing her up in the daylight. “I thought you would be stronger.”

  Lady felt her face growing warm. She drew herself up to her full height. (She had a tendency to slouch.) “I am,” she insisted. “I mean, I can carry that no problem! I just wasn’t expecting the buckets to be so heavy. That’s all.” Lady held out her hands, willing Ms. Poole to hand the buckets to her again.

  Ms. Poole offered one of the buckets and then the other. She went slowly this time, keeping a close eye on Lady’s expression. Lady, in turn, did her best not to let her discomfort show on her face. “There’s something else for you to deliver.” Ms. Poole hesitated. “Go inside and get that bag of yours. I don’t trust you to carry it with the buckets.”

  ***

  Ms. Poole had given Lady directions, but she had programmed the address into her phone anyway. Not that this had done her a whole lot of good. Her phone couldn’t seem to decide whether Dark Lake existed or not. It kept zooming out and giving her an error message.

  These errands Lady was running were proving to be harder than anticipated. As much as she had pretended they weren’t while in front of Ms. Poole, the buckets were heavy. Her tote bag was getting in the way as well. She needed it, though. She wouldn’t have been able to carry anything else otherwise. Her second errand had her taking a large envelope to the marina. Hopefully, her phone knew where that was. She had already forgotten the instructions Ms. Poole had given her. Not that she planned on asking Ms. Poole again even if she couldn’t find the right place. She would sooner ask someone else in town before she returned to Ms. Poole without her errands finished. She couldn’t just up and skip out on them either. The old lady had Lion.

  At least the weather wasn’t too hot. The temperature was pleasant. Traffic was light. As many people seemed to be using the sidewalks as there were people walking. That was a bit odd, as was the fact that other folks on the sidewalk quieted down when they moved past her. Either that or they blatantly moved to the other side of the street. It was creepy. At least twice, Lady stopped at a shop window to study her own reflection. Did she have something on her face? Nope. She looked normal.

  “Hey. Hey, excuse me.” A man’s voice spoke. He was talking to Lady, but she didn’t notice at first. Everyone had been avoiding her until now. Besides, she was focused on shaking out her arms. She had just placed both buckets on the sidewalk to give her muscles a rest. They were hot and screaming at he
r. She was definitely not as strong as she had let Ms. Poole believe. She wasn’t strong at all. “Excuse me,” the man’s voice said again.

  The voice was closer than before and Lady turned. She realized that the man who spoke had his attention on her. He smiled when their eyes met. “Yeah?” Lady sputtered. “I mean… what?” Lady had been caught off guard. He was cute. He was talking to her and he was cute. Lady wasn’t good around cute guys. She froze up, forgot what it was she was saying. She didn’t know where to look either. It was like she became hyper-aware of where her eyes were settled all of a sudden.

  “You look like you need help… Do you need help?” The man might not have been attractive to everyone. The way he spoke to her was sheepish, like he didn’t quite know how to communicate either. He looked like a bookworm, with wire-frame glasses and a sweater vest stretched over a soft body. His blond hair was in need of a trim, and he kept pushing it back while he talked. “With the buckets, I mean. They look heavy.”

  Lady felt a self-conscious twinge. “They’re not all that heavy.”

  “How far do you have to carry them, though?” He motioned over his shoulder, to an old gray sedan idling on the side of the road.

  Lady glanced at the car and then back at the man speaking to her. “Um.”

  “Oh.” The man’s face grew pink. He shook his head quickly. “That sounds… You don’t have to. I guess I wouldn’t want to get in a car with a stranger either. I only asked because it looks like you’re carrying buckets for my aunt.”

  “Your aunt?”

  He nodded. “Ms. Poole? She gets people to lug those buckets for her right after it rains. Normally it’s… a different woman. I give her a ride. I don’t see why I can’t extend the same courtesy to you.”

  Lady considered the offer. She didn’t like the idea of getting in the car with someone whose name she didn’t even know. Oh, well. Something told her she would be doing a lot of relying on the kindness of strangers in the coming days. Better to get used to it then and there. “Okay… Sure.” She hefted up one of the buckets and offered it to the man. “I’m Lady.”

  He struggled a bit accepting the bucket. “Crispin.”

  Lady followed and helped him load both buckets into the trunk. They wedged them into the back where it was unlikely they would fall over. She thought back to something he had said earlier. “So, you’re telling me these things are full of rain water?”

  Crispin gave a nervous chuckle as he closed the trunk. “Yeah. She collects big barrels of it behind her inn. Once they’re full , she sells it by the bucket-full.”

  “You’re kidding.” Lady waited until she was in the passenger seat before continuing that thought. “Doesn’t everyone around here get their own rain? Why don’t they put out their own containers to catch it? Why buy someone else’s rain?”

  “Where is it you’re headed? Are you going to see Ms. Comfrey?”

  “Yeah,” Lady answered quickly. She still wanted an answer to that first question more than anything. “Why are people buying rain water?”

  Crispin pulled away from the curb. He sighed as he did so, his eyes on the road. “My aunt… She considers herself a witch. She does a… kind of spell over the rain water. People in Dark Lake are really into that sort of stuff, and she’s well-known around here. That’s why people buy her rain water.”

  Lady laughed for a few seconds, until she realized Crispin wasn’t laughing with her. He wasn’t even smiling. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “This town is very superstitious,” Crispin said in response.

  “Is that why people were avoiding me on the street?”

  “They don’t know what sort of spell the water has on it.”

  Lady laughed again. She couldn’t help it. “This is so weird.” She recalled that Ms. Poole was Crispin’s aunt. “Cool weird!” she assured him. “I mean, I don’t know that I believe in any of that stuff, but it’s definitely interesting.”

  Crispin smiled and nodded. “So, what brings you to Dark Lake? It doesn’t sound like you have an interest in its history.”

  “It’s a long story. The short version is that I’m just passing through. I needed somewhere to stay because of the rain, and the inn was the only place in town I could find.”

  “Probably because it’s the only place in town there is for spending the night. We don’t get many tourists.” Crispin pulled his car over on the shoulder.

  “Um.” Lady wondered if she had done something to offend Crispin.

  “We’re here. Well… We’re close, anyway. Her house is the one with the big garden outside. It’s on the other side of this block. Don’t tell Ms. Comfrey or my aunt I gave you a ride. They think involving a motorized vehicle in the process sucks some of the magic out or something.”

  “Got it. My lips are sealed.” Lady pinched her fingers together and brought her hand across her mouth like she was zipping a zipper.

  Crispin got out of the car with Lady and helped her unload the buckets. “Well, it was nice meeting you.”

  “Likewise.”

  “I probably won’t see you again if you’re just passing through.”

  “Probably not.”

  “Okay… well…” Crispin rocked awkwardly back on his heels. He had a cute smile, a nervous smile. “Bye.”

  “Bye.” Lady raised a hand and waved as he went to his car. “And thanks!”

  “Don’t mention it!”

  Lady watched until Crispin rounded the corner. He couldn’t have been more unlike Ms. Poole. Maybe she was just his aunt by marriage or something. Lady shook her head. None of that mattered. She would be out of Dark Lake by tonight. She just hadn’t figured out how yet. So far her plan consisted of going to the bus stop and getting a bus other than the one she had been on the night before. Surely there were a bunch of busses and a bunch of drivers that came through Dark Lake.

  With a deep breath to gather all her strength, Lady hefted her buckets and began the long march around the block. As Crispin had told her it would be, Ms. Comfrey’s house wasn’t far. It was easy to spot with the giant garden out front. Lady had never seen such a huge garden on such a small piece of property. It almost completely obscured the house beyond it. The rain had made everything exceptionally green. Puffs of blue and red and yellow flowers were especially vivid beneath the overcast sky. Through the heavy branches, Lady could just make out a stone path and, beyond that, a red front door.

  Lady turned down the path. She was thinking to herself, trying to decide how to negotiate the buckets to knock on the door. She was about to put one down when a head popped out of the foliage. “You’re not the usual girl.”

  Lady shrieked and nearly dropped both buckets. She fumbled the one closest to the ground. It fell over but, thankfully, the lid kept the contents from leaking out. All the same, Lady worked quickly to right it.

  “Oh dear.” The head gave a tsk. A moment later the rest of the woman in the bushes was stepping out onto the path. Most likely, it was Ms. Comfrey. She was a short, plump woman. Dirty overalls emphasized her roundness. Her gloves were similarly dirty, big garden gloves with bright red ladybug patterns. She leaned down and picked up the bucket like it was no problem. “Let’s take these around back.”

  Thankfully, Ms. Comfrey didn’t cut through her garden. Lady wasn’t sure she could have navigated through it. Instead, they went around. Like Ms. Poole, Ms. Comfrey had a shed out back. It was behind a second, occipital garden. She opened the door and placed one bucket inside. “Put it there. See those two empty buckets? You take those back to her. I’m done with them.”

  Lady did as she was told. The other buckets were, thankfully, a lot easier to carry than the first two. They felt empty.

  Ms. Comfrey put on a smile. It suited her face. There were wrinkles around her eyes and mouth like she smiled often. “So, you’re Millie’s new employee, hmm?”

  “Millie?” Lady repeated, puzzled.

  “Ms. Poole.” Ms. Comfrey rolled her eyes. “She insists on everyone c
alling her Ms. Poole, but I figure I’ve known her since we were both kids, so I can call her anything I darn well please—Oh!” Ms. Comfrey hastily removed a glove and thrust one calloused hand out to Lady. “I’m Althea Comfrey. You can call me Al. No one calls me Al, but I wish they would. Althea is such a mouthful, isn’t it?”

  “Not really, but I’ll call you Al if you want.” Not that Lady would have an opportunity to after today. “I’m not working for Ms. Poole, though. I mean, well, I’m obviously working for her today, but it’s just for today. It’s just to pay her back for giving me a room. I’m just passing through.”

  Ms. Comfrey, Al, laughed long and loud. She had a big booming laugh. It felt awkward to be the butt of the laugh, especially when Lady wasn’t sure why she was the butt of it. “Oh, Sweetie.” Al paused to dab some tears from the corners of her eyes. “No one just passes though Dark Lake. You can tell yourself whatever you like, but you’re going to be here for a while.”

  Lady didn’t like the way Al said that, the way she made something so ominous sound so matter-of-fact. She decided to change the subject. “So, I hear you’re into, like, New Age stuff.”

  “I’m a witch, Dear. You can come right out and say it. I’m not ashamed.” Al put her hands on her hips. She took up a lot of room for such a small woman. Lady got the sense that there wasn’t much she was ashamed of.

  “That’s cool,” said Lady, because she wasn’t sure what else to say. She didn’t believe in magic, but it wasn’t any skin off her nose if someone else did. She’d had a friend in high school who had gone through a phase where she only wore black and carried a sketchbook she called her “Book of Shadows” everywhere. A pentagram had been drawn on it with gel pen. Lady had never met anyone Al’s age who believed in that sort of thing. “I guess Ms. Poole is a witch too, huh?”

  “And a good one. Make no mistake about that.”

  Lady nodded toward the shed. “So why not bless your own rain or whatever? Why do you need Ms. Poole to do it for you?”