Bladed Cross

INTO DARKNESS

With a sinister quality that was not yet known to them, the waters of Demon Lake sparkled and shimmered in the morning sunlight.

The house was near the side of the pavement in a small clearing. An old dock was installed in front of the house, the wood on one end rotting. The young man who was appreciating it all, sat down on his friend's porch and started reading his graphic novel. In the background, loud Rock music—possibly the band Anthrax—blasted over large speakers. His friend was working on that big black pickup he always drove. Sitting in a worn armchair on the front porch, he had a good view of the massive body of water, and his other friend canoeing in it. All was peaceful, not a surprise from the perspective of this group, since the entire lake was a kind of small neighborhood, and mostly a place for rental cabins so people could spend their vacations here. He liked it, and his girlfriend was here too. She was in the house and getting ready to come outside and, work on the dock, he thought bitterly. She's acting like it's not vacation for us. Or, her anyway.

But as she had said the night before, "okay, here's the thing, Andy. This is my house, the property looks like shit in certain places and it need to be fixed or cleaned up. So suck it up."

It annoyed him, yet despite the desired leisure time, he was willing to help, and he'd offered to do so with the dock, but she had denied it. The new wood that had been bought from town sat stacked and ready for use. All she had to do was break the old out, and install the new material. He sighed, sometimes vacation time had to be work time. She came out with a screw gun, a box of screws and a crowbar to remove the old and rotting wood.

"I've changed my mind," she said," I need you to help pull that wood out, then you can be free."

"Fine," He said somewhat begrudgingly.

When they reached the dock, he saw that the wooden boards on the shoreline were rotting from the wet and mossy gravel that she dug out the day prior, the fresh boards laying stacked to the side. With minimal effort, he pried the old ones out, and set them aside before saying with a newfound enthusiasm, "you know what? I think I can handle this on my own."

"You sure?" She asked.

"Yeah, I've done stuff like this before. You go do whatever you want, or stay. Your call."

She laughed, brushing back her smooth hair. "Okay fine, I'll stay and watch then."

A loud splash came from beyond the dock, directly in front of them, sudden and alarming.

"What the hell was that?" She almost leaped back from the dock.

"I don't know," he said, less fazed than she was. "I think it was one of those giant air bubbles, you've seen them before."

"I guess, I don't know," she was anxious now. "Lets just get this done."

He started placing the new boards, drilling them in place, not understanding why she seemed so nervous now. That was probably all it was, just an air bubble. After all, what else could it be? Still, even as he worked he began to develop a dreadful feeling. But eventually, it passed, and both of them began to calm down. After all, things like this weren't that uncommon. It seemed to take a while, but he finally finished the installation of the new boards. She clapped and regarded him happily.

"Great job, babe. Lets uh, I guess walk on it."

He rolled his eyes, "what a way with words." She seemed to be over her alarm. They both started walking along the dock, holding hands, admiring his work.

"Can we have a little fun now?" He asked, giving her a certain look.

Knowing what he meant, she said in an amused tone, "yeah yeah, we can go do something fun, we can go. .."