Short stories+ a murder story

The Lake

The lake was a beautiful body of water. The water was clean, blue, with lots of life, and ducks swimming around the lake. Also build nearby the lake was a University, shops, and apartments. In all the buildings are just by the lake. The lake makes a beautiful scenery, doesn't it?

In April of 2002, the lake, university, apartments was still there, but there was a playground in the end of the lake where children from nearby apartments would come and play on weekends. The lake it self was still beautiful back then as it is now. People were jogging, and enjoying the evening sunset.

The date was April 19 2002. 4 PM. 2 children, Hassan, 10 and Kadisatawati, 10 were playing in the playground by the lake. Their parents were talking to each other, enjoying the face to face communication that we rarely see today. Allh the fun of the face to face communication is making them lose the time, and surroundings.

Hasan was playing by the swing set when he saw something strange in the lake. It was a black, very long creature. - Approximately 10 meters long. It has a lot of humps, with a sharp hump at the end. He also managed to see the eyes. It was red, glowing. 

He stopped playing the swing and approached to the slopped off the lake, mesmerized. The creature continued gliding out into the lake, until it dived down into the depths of the lake, disappearing from sight. 

Hassan was stunned by the sighting. He was sure it wasn't a fish, as "that type" of fish don't live in lakes. He called out for his friend Kadisatawati, 10. Kadisatawati was often called " Kadi".

" Kadi, Kadi! I saw something strange in the water. It was something like a creature! Come, come!"

Kadi, unknown to just what had happened, stop playing in the slides and came to Hassan's side to ask what just happened. He caught a glimpse of the creature, but didn't paid much attention to it until Hassan called.

"What is it? You saw something?" He asked

"I saw something strange in the lake. It was a creature. I'm sure that wasn't a fish. That creature was very long.." He let it all out to Kadi.

"Ok tell me what did you see. Was it a scary creature" Kadi enquired about the creature

Hassan began describing the chronology of the creature's sighting. 

" I was on the swingset, playing happily. The swing was overlooking the lake when in noticed something strange in the lake. It was a very long creature. It was black in colour, and it moved like a snake. It has many humps, and a sharp hump at the end. Then, it dived deeper into the lake"

Because of their young age, Kadi was easily gullible. He believed it, and was awestruck by his testimony. "Oh my god... you saw that!? I wanna see it too!"

" I think that it will appear again sooner. Let's go back to play" Hassan said.

Just then, they were walking back to the playground when Hassan decided to look back one more time. There it is again. The creature was creeping up to the surface of the water and turns to them. It stares at them for a few seconds, with it's bloody red, bloodshot eyes staring at their eyes. It looks like it was angry, evil, menacing. Then, it went back into the depths of the lake. 

"Did you see that" Hassan screamed at Kadia. Kadia was perplexed at the sight. He has never seen such a sight in the lake. Though he has seen some koi fishes in the lake, he had never seen that creature. He knew, that that creature doesn't belong to the lake.

" I saw that creature. It' s strange, because this lake is only filled with fishes, and that creature is certainly not a fish".

Wanting to investigate further about the creature, both of them got closer into the lake, stepping into the waters, where their feet touched the waters.

"I'm sure it will appear again." Hassan assured.

However, Kadia seem something was wrong. In his mind, it seem that there is something sinister about the creature. If it doesn't belong there, it means something is dangerous. Thinking wisely, he stepped out of the water...

"Hassan, i think that creature is dangerous. You should stay away from it. It might attack you" Kadia warned him, after stepping out of the water and into the grounds. He was standing a mere 5 meters of Hassan.

"Don't worry Kadia. There's no harm in that creature. It's just a fish" Hassan assured Kadia, that there was nothing wrong in that long creature. 

Kadia then remembered how the creature looked like. It has red eyes, lots of hump in the body like a snake. Red eyes means that it's evil - and it's bloodshot red. 

" Hassan, the eyes are red. It means it's evil. It's a bad creature! Don't go there ! And get off from the water now!" Kadia screamed, already sensing that something bad was gonna happen.

Kadia kept denying it. " No, no,no. Nothing bad will happen"... 

He would pay a priceless price for his denial.

The creature, re-emerged again from the waters, and stared at Hasan for a moment, then it charged to Hasan, tied his feet with it's long body and pulled him into the lake... to be part of the lake.  Hassan was pulled, fell to the water, and started screaming. 

" HELP, HELP HELP* he screamed as he is pulled into the lake. His screams sure attract the attention of nearby people, including parents of children, sellers, joggers, students, lecturers and of course, dogs! They start coming in droves. The mother of Hassan, Khadijah, came to her dear son's aid immediately and tried in vain to rescue him. 

"My son, my son, my son!!" Khadijah started screaming, " Oh Allah, please give a miracle for my son to live! I entrust in you, Allah!" . BY this time, Hassan's hands was visible from the surface, his body beneath the water, and bubbles popping, which means he is still alive.

It has made quite a scene in the lake, and a lot of people had gathered, with some even jumping into the lake to rescue him. However, it was too late...

A few hours later, Hassan's body was rescued - lifeless. And there was something odd about the body. It had bruise marks - particularly in the abdomen, and huge red marks in the neck showed that he had been strangled and the neck broken. These injuries does not corresponce to those who died by drowning. Of course they would not take "that creature" as a reason for his dead... So, in all, his autopsy was ruled as "drowning" - ruling out all of the injuries that were present in his body..

The funeral was held on April 21st with over 200 invited relatives and friends attending. Khadijah was inconsolable, in deep shock. She could not believe that her dear, loving son of 10 long years was gone. Gone in just minutes. As for Kadia, he was silent. He knew that the adults woudn't take his explaination seriouslyl. In his mind, he felt really guilty for not putting much more pressure on Hassan to leave the the lake; however, he was thankfull that he had followed his intuitions. 

People left flowers, messsages of condolences, toys, in the ground near the lake where the boy had drowned. 

----

A few months later on July 16, 2002 an 11 year old girl named Chelsea together with her dog Lassie drowned in the lake, near the same spot where Hassan had drowned. A stroke of luck - Chelsea survived with serious injuries and rushed to the hospital for immediate treatment where she gradually improved. Lassie - did not meet the same fate as Chelsea. He died, just like Hassan.

More incidents of drownings occured in the lake in the coming months and years. It's 3rd victim - a 22 year old man, drowned while relaxing, sitting in a wooded, low bridge. Autopsies showed the same injuries as Hassan

Eventually in 2005, when Kadia was 13, he and his family moved out of the area. He soon forgot about it.