Anecdotes || Story Times

4: Cabin in the Woods

Not everyone was going to jump naked into a star-covered lake. Harper had already passed out, Iris was getting ready for bed, Jess didn't feel like it, and Benjamin was Benjamin. So Imogen, Alice, Chloé, Sol, and I were ready to go. I didn't want to bother with stripping on the dock so I just wrapped a towel around myself and headed down to the dock with the others.

The automatic light almost made us go back, since we're all friends and we're all close but still, being naked doesn't feel like the default. When we got onto the dock, quietly giggling but trying not to wake anyone up, the light went out. I was the only one in a towel, everyone just had clothes, and Sol said I had the strats bringing the towel. The lake was inky black, so smooth it was like we would be jumping into an inverted sky. It was weird, but it felt magical already.

By weird I mean it was kind of funny how we all lined up side by side, no one really looking at each other. It was a new moon, and the starlight wasn't much to go off of, so everyone was fuzzy outlines of skin and shape, which was nice because even if we all had been staring at each other we might've well have been blind.

So we were lined up, side by side, probably undressing but I was just focused on gently kicking my feet in the water and getting ready to throw my towel off my shoulders. There was a nervous energy, but still electric, and we all decided to stand up, hold hands, and take the plunge into the darkness together.

That first moment of sinking deep into the water, surrounded by black, encased in the coolness of the lake, was absolutely incredible. I think we all quickly got drunk off that feeling, because we breached the surface with laughter and whooping, then remembered that people were sleeping and it would be a bit embarrassing if someone came down to dock. There were also other cabins lining the lake, but they were probably too far away to hear us.

Everyone was fuzzy, speckled outlines in the darkness. I could hardly make out who anyone was treading around the water without hearing their whispered voices. With how dark the water and the air was around us, our skin almost seemed to glow in an eerie way. It was strange looking down at myself, because in the dim starlight my own legs really did seem to glow underwater. I felt like I was an ancient and ethereal water nymph.

Jess had come down to join the fun and jumped in quickly. I told everyone that I was going to try and swim and touch the bottom but I promised I wouldn't try and grab anyone's legs, because Chloé had just felt a lake reed and Jess was teasing her about drowned ghosts and lake monsters. Diving down into the darkness was terrifying, but exhilarating and somehow comforting.

I like burying myself under piles of heavy blankets and pillows everytime I sleep, so it makes sense that I would like feeling enveloped by the weight of the lake, without sight and without direction, my only guide the feeling of the water growing colder against my skin as I dove deeper and deeper.

And then, when I knew I was nowhere near the bottom but still so far down my lungs screamed for air, I shot up, cutting up to the surface of the lake like a knife through water. Then bursting out of the water, and I'm pretty sure if we could actually see each other I would've flashed my friends, but we were all busy gazing at the stars.

The stars were so clear, so infinite. Sol and I tried to share our star knowledge, which wasn't much, but Alice saw a shooting star and then everyone started searching for another. I found it was really incredible to stare straight up at a cluster of stars, then start spinning in the water, faster and faster, the twinkling pinpricks of light blurring like comets and my vision going dizzy. It felt like being transported to another world. And then slowing down, I lose my sense of direction even more and just bob aimlessly across the lake.

Chloé kept trying to float on her back to stare up at the stars, but when you do that your whole body rises out of the water, especially the chest area. Not that we could see anything, but Chloé realised she could interlock her fingers and make a hand bra while she floated.