The Pentagon

The "Forbidden" Lake

All my life I have lived in this one part of the city going to and from school and work and normally I would take this route back to my apartment just to calm my mind from all its worries. Taking this route I would pass by a bright blue lake that shimmered in the sun with large trees that surrounded. 

Sometimes I wish I could take a dip in the lake to cool off from the hot and stressful days that had passed and weeks to come but that desire was quickly crushed by my grandfather and the townspeople. 

When I was around the age of ten I told my father’s old man that I wanted to have his face drained of all color, as though he had seen a ghost or received devastating news. That was when I learned the story of the lake that person never dared to go into. It was said that there lived a woman that lived in the river that loved young men and would seduce them to come into the lake to talk or play games with her. 

That way she would drown them because they had to leave her to go home but she would want them to stay. This was her way to keep them forever and that they will be friends for eternity.

But today I was feeling very rebellious and adventurous. I wanted to find out what would happen if I went into the river and what the girl of the river looked like. The women in the town always described her to be hideous with  slimy short hair, yellow jagged sharp teeth and siren eyes with vertical pupils while the men described her to have long black hair, blue seductive eyes and red pouty lips. 

I truly don't believe what either of them said about her because the women probably only described her that way because they know that the women of the lake have seduced their husband and boyfriends and the men might only described that way because they have been seduced by her.

While walking down the dock of the lake I could hear the angel on my right shoulder telling me to just turn around and go home while the little demon on the left telling me to just continue down the deck. Listening to the demon I continued down the dock to see the sun sitting on the lake.

When I arrived at the end of the dock. “The lake is so mesmerizing and people refuse to come just because of some old folks' tale, pfft what a bunch of fools” I spoke with disgust. I stared at the water for a couple of minutes and then started to remove my shorts and shirt. Being the extra person I am , I prayed to God that none of the townspeople would  see me and began to stretch. 

After stretching I dove into the lake. The coolness of the water sent shivers up my spine, taking off the sweat that rested on my body from the long hot summer day. After resurfacing, I remembered about the alleged woman of the lake. In a demanding voice it said “If you're actually real, show yourself”.  

Not seeing or hearing anything I laughed loudly, then said “These people actually believed that some woman really lived in the water”. After swimming around the lake for a couple of minutes I decided that it was finally time to get out of the water. 

Right  when I was almost out of the water, I felt something touch the bottom of my foot, I ignored it thinking it was just some kelp. Before as I was about to pull up my leg out of the water I felt something hold onto my ankle tightly. 

In fear I slowly turned around to look at what was on my ankle. Seeing a pale hand with long nails holding my ankle, I kicked and screamed, jumped on the dock grabbing my belongings and ran further up the dock far from the end of the walk. After putting on my clothing I went to investigate what that was. Walking off the dock around to the small part of land that was on the other side I started to look around to find what it was. After a couple of minutes, I stood by the lake shocked at what was looking back at me. 

It was the woman of the lake, only half of her face was shown, from her forehead to the bridge of her nose. From what I could see she was nothing to what the townspeople described. Her hair was white from the roots going into a green, her eyes that held so much pain were green.  As I was about to speak to her she looked like she was scared and swam off into the depths of the lake. 

In utter shock I stayed in my crouched position staring at the lake for a couple of minutes. All of a sudden I heard my name being called in the distance, coming to a conclusion that the voice was Grandpa. Quickly I gathered my things and ran to him to look as though I was not coming from the Forbidden lake.