The Lady of Dark Lake Read online

  “We all have our specialties. Ms. Poole’s is water. I would be a fool not to take advantage of her gifts when the two of us live so close together.”

  “So, what’s your gift?” Lady looked toward the massive garden only a few yards away. “Plants, I guess?”

  “Oh, no, no, no.” Al shook her head. “But I can see how you might make that mistake. I’m a healer actually.”

  “A healer?” Lady repeated, perhaps with a bit more skepticism than intended. She didn’t have a problem with people believing in magic, but she did have a problem with charlatans claiming to have healing powers when all they were actually doing was keeping someone from going to a hospital and getting the help they needed. Not that she had any evidence Al was doing something like that.

  “Life is my forte.” If Al had picked up on anything negative in Lady’s tone, she ignored it. “I suspect that’s why I’m so good with plants. I’ve never had one die on me. I’m not sure I could kill a plant if I tried. Not that I could ever bring myself to. I think they’re lovely.” She turned her gaze to the garden, hey eyes growing softer, more affectionate.

  “And no one asks you to, like, trim it back a little?”

  “No.” Al looked back to Lady. “Why would they?”

  Lady shook her head. “I don’t know.” She wanted very badly to be finished with her errands suddenly. “I have to go to the marina next. Do you know where that is from here?”

  “Oh, sure.” Al pointed away from her house. “If you came here straight from Millie’s, it’s back the way you came. Just make sure you take a left instead of a right back at the old bait shop.”

  “Got it.” Lady nodded. “Well, I should get moving.”

  “Right, right.” Al was all smiles. “I’ll see you soon.”

  Lady smiled back. It wasn’t worth it to correct the woman. She was going to be leaving today. Whether or not Al believed that wasn’t her problem. Empty buckets in hand, Lady headed around the house and toward the sidewalk. It was there that she froze.

  Across the street was a spray-painted eye. It was white, it’s line stylized and curling like the one she had seen down at the lake. This eye was in broad daylight, in a residential area. It was smaller than the last one she had seen, drawn on a knee-high brick wall. It was still there, though. “Creepy,” Lady murmured to herself. “And not my problem.” She headed down the sidewalk, back in the direction Al had indicated, back in the direction she had come from.

  Chapter Three

  The bait shop was easy enough to find. When Al had said old, she meant it. The place was abandoned. Its paint was peeling and the windows were shattered. The only things that still marked it as a bait shop were heavily faded signs advertising nightcrawlers and minnows. Lady hurried past when she noticed another spray-painted eye. What was up with this place? Did it have gang activity or something? What a weird place for a gang to set up shop.

  ***

  There wasn’t a whole lot to the marina. It was a series of piers and a boat house. A small wooden building nearest to Lady looked like the place where business was done. Dark Lake Marina, said the sign. Lady pulled open the door and went inside. “Hello?”

  The interior was wooden, old, and rustic. There were all sorts of fish mounted to the wall, more than Lady knew the names for. Not that she knew the names for any of them except one or two that she’d hesitantly guess were bass.

  No one was behind the front counter. Lady moved up to it and called out again. “Hello? Is anyone here? I’ve got a letter to deliver.” At least, Lady thought it was a letter. She had removed the large envelope from her tote bag and was considering just leaving it on the counter. Something told her Ms. Poole wouldn’t approve, though. She probably wanted the envelope landing directly in someone’s hand.

  Behind the counter there was a sign that listed prices for boat rentals. A few tanks full of dirt told Lady that this place probably sold the bait the old bait shop didn’t anymore. Further down the counter was a spinning metal rack. She could see lures, feathers and sparkly rubber worms in packages.

  “Hello!” Lady felt some deja-vu as she reached for the bell and rang it madly. Who cared if these people liked her? She was about to leave. Besides, it was their fault for not doing their jobs. How was anyone supposed to rent a boat or buy bait or do… marina business?

  Lady went around the counter and poked her head in the back, but there wasn’t anyone there either. There was only an office and that was empty. “It figures,” Lady grumbled. Out of spite she stole a sparkly worm off the rack on her way out the door, shoving the thing deep into her tote bag.

  How mad could Ms. Poole be if there was no one around to accept the letter? Would she prefer she just left it or bring it back entirely and let Ms. Poole try to get it here another day? Lady was fishing her phone from her bag, trying to remember if she saw a landline back at the inn when she spotted people on the docks. There were two of them. One was laying down. The other was pacing. Maybe they knew where she could find the marina employees.

  ***

  Lady headed down onto the docks. Water crashed against the posts beneath her feet. The water was swirling, unhappy. Maybe no one was working at the marina because no one in their right mind would go out on the water today.

  The docks branched in two directions. Lady chose the right path. The left led to the person lying down. It was a woman on her back, wearing a bikini of all things. The sun wasn’t out from behind the clouds much. Her skin was dark. Really dark. Lady didn’t see how so little sun could tan it much. Heck, Lady was pale, and she wasn’t convinced she could get a tan today.

  The woman on the right side of the pier was on the phone. She sounded annoyed. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know where he is. I’m not his keeper.” This woman had bleached blond hair and a golden tan. Her shorts showed off the curve of her thighs, and her shirt was tied up to show off her flat stomach. Her blue eyes settled on Lady. “Look, I have to go. I have to work.”

  Lady fought down a surge of anger. So there were people working today. They just weren’t where they should be. She wondered if the woman napping on the other pier was supposed to be working too. Probably.

  “Yeah.. Bye… Okay. Okay! Bye.” The woman hung up. Her annoyed expression was replaced immediately with a disingenuous smile. “Hey, sorry about that. Guy trouble. You know how it is.” When Lady didn’t come back with a smile or a response, she changed the subject. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here.”

  “I’m just passing through.” Lady held up the envelope. “I’m delivering this for Ms. Poole. I tried to give it to someone in the office up there. The door was unlocked, but no one was actually inside.”

  “Oh! I can take that.” She reached out and took the envelope. “It’s probably cash. She keeps a boat here and always pays in cash even though she never goes out on it.” Another laugh and a shrug. “But that’s none of my business. You gotta make money where you can, you know?”

  “I guess.” Lady still didn’t feel like being friendly. Though, she was a little surprised Ms. Poole had sent someone she didn’t know out with money. She was also a little surprised the woman in front of her hadn’t bothered to count it.

  The disingenuous smile fell from the woman’s face. She sighed and shifted her weight to one leg, leaning a shoulder against the boat house. “Look, I’m sorry no one was in the office. Everyone who comes out here knows us and things aren’t really strict. I guess it doesn’t make for the best first impression, though.”

  Without the stupid smile on her face, Lady felt more inclined to be civil. “It’s fine.” She shrugged. “I guess I’m just not used to living in small towns like this.”

  “I imagine it can take some getting used to.” The woman smiled again. It was less forced this time, maybe even a little nervous. “I’m Andrea, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

  “Lady.” She reached out and accepted Andrea’s hand, giving it a shake. She didn’t bother mentioning that she wouldn’t be ar
ound long enough to “get used to” Dark Lake.

  “That’s Destiny over there. She works here too.” Andrea pointed to the woman lounging on the other pier. “Say hi, Destiny!”

  “Hi,” came the faint reply as Destiny half-heartedly raised a hand in greeting but didn’t bother to look up.

  If Lady had to guess, she’d say both women were about her age. She wondered if they were in college. She wondered what the college nearest to Dark Lake was. “Good to meet the both of you,” Lady said loud enough for both women to hear. “So, do I need a receipt or something?”

  “Um.” Andrea looked down at the envelope in her hands and then back at Lady like she was speaking Greek to her. A receipt clearly wasn’t something she handed out often. “I can get you one.”

  “If you don’t mind. I want to make sure I do this right. Ms. Pool seems like a hard lady to please.”

  “That’s always been my impression!” Andrea laughed and headed back down the pier. “I don’t spend much time around her. All that witchcraft stuff gives me the willies.” She shivered for effect and then for real. A gust blew through, lifting her hair from her neck. “Ooh.” She hugged herself. “It feels like a storm is moving in.” Andrea stopped and turned to look across the water. Dark clouds had settled on the horizon.

  Destiny was standing now, and she threw a look over her shoulder. “Did you hear that?” she called back to Andrea and Lady.

  “Hear what?” asked Andrea without pausing to listen.

  “Shh!” hissed Destiny. All of them lapsed into silence.

  Lady hadn’t heard anything. Now that everyone was quiet, she could only hear the rumblings of a distant storm. Already her mind was wandering to the bus ride ahead of her. It would be lousy if Lion got her kicked off in the middle of a rain storm again. But then she heard it.

  The sound was faint at first. Lady thought it might have sounded like a human voice. Seconds later she was sure it was her mind playing tricks. Destiny had told them she heard something, and now her mind was manufacturing the sound.

  Thunder boomed and lightning cut the sky in the distance. Andrea jumped and gave a little shriek. “It’s just a bird or something,” she said, a hand fluttering over her chest nervously.

  Andrea’s suggestion that the sound had been a bird didn’t do much to put Lady’s mind at ease. If anything, it made her more sure that she had heard something. It hadn’t just been her mind playing tricks on her. There really was some kind of strange, low keening coming over the waves. Lady hurried further out onto the water, out to the edge of the dock. “Is there someone out there?” She squinted, trying to make out the source of the sound. The water had grown choppy. “Was anyone out there swimming?”

  “Not that we saw, but people swim out there all the time,” said Destiny, still staring intently out across the water.

  “So, what do you do if-” Lady’s question was cut off. She heard it loud and clear. Someone was calling for help. It was a man’s voice. “There!” Lady pointed. She could see arms thrusting up through the water. There were two of them waving, flailing.

  “What?” Andrea’s voice came from just behind Lady. “Do you see something?”

  “Yeah. Right there.” Lady pointed again, emphatically. “Someone needs help! Don’t you hear him?” Never mind seeing him. His voice was coming through loud and clear now.

  “I don’t hear anything.” Andrea was shaking her head when Lady glanced back at her. She was frowning. It seemed like she meant what she was saying. Lady looked to Destiny but only saw a blur. There was a splash. She’d jumped in the water.

  “Do you two double as life guards?” asked Lady, watching as Destiny took off across the choppy water, arms wind-milling in a forward crawl. She recognized it from her own swimming days. She’d been on a team in middle school.

  “No,” Andrea said, her voice shaking and a little frantic. “That’s not part of our job.”

  Lady swore. Before she fully knew what she was doing, she had wiggled her feet out of her tennis shoes. Her pants came next. Thank goodness she had put on underwear today.

  “What are you doing?” asked Andrea. Lady didn’t have time to answer the question. Her mind only processed it once she was jumping.

  The water was cold and deep and, true to its name, dark. It had been a long time since Lady had swum, but it came back to her easily. She kicked up to the surface and took off in the same direction Destiny had. She swam toward the noise. It was all she could do. It was impossible to see the man’s arms anymore, especially from the angle she was at, and the weather was growing worse by the second. Thunder rumbled above. Lady could feel drops of water hitting her arms and her cheeks when she turned her head to take a breath. It was hard to differentiate from the lake water, but the way it was landing on her made her think of rain.

  It didn’t take long for Lady to catch up with Destiny. “W-what are you-” Destiny sputtered. She had stopped to tread water. There were no more cries for help.

  “Was this where he was?” asked Lady, stopping and treading water beside her. She looked around. She didn’t see him, but this looked like about the right spot. It was the same straight line from the dock and far enough away. She could see with certainty now that it was raining. It was coming down harder and colder, colder than the water she was treading. Lady fought down the shivers.

  “Yeah,” said Destiny, a tremble to her voice like she was feeling the cold too. “I think so. I don’t see him anymore.”

  Lady swore again and dove under. She didn’t have much faith in herself. The water was so muddy and dark. She could barely see her own hands as they cut through the water in front of her. The most she could hope to see was movement if he was thrashing, and that was only if she got very close.

  Was there an undertow? She didn’t feel one, but there could be. Lady had helped younger swimmers before. Usually they had been closer to the surface, easier to get behind and restrain so that they would stop panicking. Lady wasn’t sure what to do about a grown man. Did she have it in her to save someone larger than herself? Maybe if Destiny was helping. God, this was stupid. This was so stupid. You weren’t supposed to jump in and just try your best to help. All the experts said not to. Save a drowning victim when you don’t know how and then there are two drowning victims.

  Lady’s lungs burned. She kicked up and returned to the surface. She had gone a lot deeper than anticipated. Her chest was aching by the time her head popped up amongst the waves. She sucked in air and simultaneously choked on rain. It was coming down a lot harder than before. It was hard to see back to the pier. She couldn’t see Destiny at all. “Destiny?!” Lady didn’t get an answer. Her mind conjured up terrible images, reminding her of what she had been thinking only moments ago. There were two drowning victims now.

  Lady felt something brush her leg. She spun and a moment later Destiny’s head popped out of the water only a couple of feet away. She drew in a sharp breath and then coughed like Lady had. “We should go back!” Lady raised her voice to make sure she was heard over the inclement weather.

  Destiny finished coughing and looking back down beneath the waves. “I think I saw something!”

  “Even if you did, I don’t think we can help him anymore!”

  Destiny cut Lady a look that silently said a lot of unkind things. “Go back then!” She shouted before going under a second time.

  Lady tried to yell at her, tried to explain how and why this was so dangerous. She didn’t think Destiny heard a word of it. She doubted she would care if she had heard. Lady dove down. If Destiny had seen something, if she did find the drowning man, Lady at least needed to be down there to help.

  She found Destiny. It was thankfully easy to find her beneath the water. She couldn’t make out a lot, but she could see the shape of her moving down and down and down. She was swimming with a purpose, like she knew where she was going. Lady followed her. They would have to go back up eventually. When they did, Lady planned to try and make another case for swimming back to
the docks.

  Then she saw it. She saw what Destiny must have seen. There was something pale, almost luminescent. It was a hand and it was reaching. It wasn’t flailing anymore, it was weak. It was weak but clearly still alive.

  Lady kicked down hard. She intended to get around behind the man, but it was like she couldn’t swim fast enough. It was like he was a stone sinking to the bottom of the lake quick. Try as she might, Lady could only ever see that hand reaching for her. She was running out of breath. In desperation, she reached for the hand. She grabbed on tight to the forearm and felt the hand close tight around her own. He really was still alive. Good. Lady looked for Destiny and pulled hard. The man pulled back, pulled her down.

  Lady hadn’t expected to be yanked down so hard. It startled the last of the air out of her lungs. This wasn’t someone panicking, clinging to any hope of rescue so hard he pulled them both down by mistake. This was deliberate. It was like the man wanted to go deeper and he wanted Lady to come with him.

  Lady let go of the forearm, or tried to, but her fingers wouldn’t open. The luminescent skin was sucking on them like mud. Her own mind in a panic, she brought her other hand down and tried to free her right arm. The arm didn’t budge. Its muscles were taut. When she tried to pull her left hand away, she found that it was stuck too.

  Lady brought her feet down and kicked. Screw saving anyone. She kicked for his head. She needed air!

  Her foot connected with something. At first, she thought it was his head, maybe his shoulder, but she couldn’t kick off of it. The solidity of it buckled. It caved in beneath her heel like it was made of dead leaves. It crumpled and swirled around her calves. She wasn’t sinking quite so fast anymore, and she brought her arms up. The hand was still holding fast to her forearm, but it wasn’t connected to anything. There wasn’t blood clouding around the end of it. It was just a pale arm, like an anatomy model for a high school class or an artist. Except its muscles were still tense. Its sticky skin still sucked at her fingers and palms.