day two

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LAUREN'S POV:

9:13 am

I pulled my hair up into a rough bun as I walked down the stairs and towards the kitchen of the lakehouse. The kitchen was in a wide place with a rustic farmhouse of an island with a wooden countertop in the middle of it. I sleepily shuffled my way over to the tiny refrigerator, having a strong urge to eat I didn't waste any time opening the door but my excitement for food immediately turned into confusion as I saw empty shelves.  

Hoping for a miracle I slammed the refrigerator door shut then quickly opened it again, "What in God's name?!" I blurt out, "Who ate all the food?" My voice echoed across the entire lower level of the lakehouse. Demi and I filled the fridge with all of the snacks, drinks, and quick meals that we packed for this trip but now there's nothing. 

I heard footsteps making their way down the stairs, I turned to see that it was Melody. I glared at her from head to toe, "You look like you slept for 30 minutes, maybe less." I suggested. 
Melody yawned as she rubbed the bags out of her eyes, "It felt like I did. I woke up last night because I had a nightmare that I was drowning. It felt like-"

"- It felt like you couldn't breathe. Being suffocated literally could feel the water in your lungs.." 

Melody's mouth slightly hung open in shock, "Mom... how did you know that?" 
"I.. had the same dream last night... and so did Mama," I replied hesitantly, the last thing I wanted to do was freak my daughter out since we've only been here for one night but I struggle with lying to people. "But onto other things that are more important," I pointed towards the empty refrigerator, "Did you eat all of the food?" 

"Huh? What? Why and how would I be able to do that?" Melody walked closer to the fridge and examined the empty, cold shelves, "It's seriously all gone?" 

I walked away raising my hands frustratedly into the air, "If I didn't eat the food, and you didn't eat the food. Your Mama definitely didn't eat all of that food... we'll just have to buy some more and put a lock on it or something!" 
 
"What's going on? Why are you yelling first thing in the fucking morning?" Demi questioned as she made her way down the stairs and stood next to Melody.
"You know I only yell when I'm hungry," I admitted.

Demi shook her head and made her way towards the fridge, "I swear to God if you just don't make something to eat..." She gently opened the fridge and met the same empty shelves, "How are you hungry if you ate everything we brought already?"

I rubbed the temples of my forehead, "That's the problem baby, I didn't. Melody never touched the fridge either." 

Melody began to slowly walk towards the front door, "Well while you guys solve that I'm going to explore the lake.. maybe I'll catch a fish or something for us to eat." 
I shook my head, "Please don't catch a fish. We'll figure out something." 


10 a.m


Demi, Melody and I were fully dressed at this point. We are all determined to head out to the grocery store to pick up some food for the rest of our trip.

I locked the lakehouse door behind me and met Demi out at the front, her arm was up in the air with her phone in her hand and her face had a pissed off look painted onto it. "What's going on? Did you call the uber yet?" 

"I can't call the uber, for some reason I don't have any cell service? We had LTE here yesterday and now it keeps saying no service at the top bar." Demi continued to walk around on the sand with her arm up in the air. 

I pulled out my phone and received the same no service message at the top, this is just great. 


"Where's Melody?" 
"She said she was going to walk down the shore till we were ready to go. I told her that one of us would give her a call but that obviously can't fucking happen now." 

I put my hand above my eyes to block the sun so I could look down the shore, but something seemed different. Instead of the sand curving into a circle at the end like yesterday, it looked more open and longer, I could walk straight down the shore if I wanted to instead of making it back around. There were more green trees going straight down on the shore but yesterday everything was shaped like a clock. 

"Babe, does the lake look different to you or am I crazy?" 
Demi put her arm down for a second and stared at the lake before looking back at me, "You're crazy. It's still shaped like a clock thingy, look at that big circle of water." 
I ended up looking at her with an off expression, "I'm starting to think that Lasik eye surgery was a bad idea for you." 
"What are you talking about? That stupid body of water still looks the same." 
"No! No, it doesn't. The shore as literally expanded and the water is going straight down now, along with the trees." I argued.

"Lauren... do you need to sit down? Is the hunger doing this to you?" Demi changed the tone of her voice and placed her hand onto my shoulder. Before I could open my mouth, I noticed that Melody was running up the shore with another person. 

Demi turned towards the view, "Oh look! Baby girl made a friend." 

Melody and the girl stopped right in front of Demi and I, "Leyla these are my Moms and Moms this is Leyla. She's staying with her family this summer at a lake house that's a little further down the shore." 

I plastered a smile on my face as I took a look at Leyla, she had shoulder length blonde hair and calm blue eyes. Her skin looked a bit flushed in her red and black one-piece swimsuit that she had underneath a pair of high waisted jean shorts.
"Nice to meet you, Leyla, I'm Demi and this is Lauren." Demi beamed, she was always the first to greet people. 
"Hi, it's nice to meet you too." Leyla smiled back with a tiny wave. 

"Leyla explained to me that there's a gas station that's in walking distance from here, maybe we could get some food there? Were you able to get the uber?" Melody asked us.
Demi shooked her head as she slid her phone into her back pocket, "Sadly, no. I can't get any cell service and neither can Mom. Maybe we could walk to the gas station just to get some stuff for today?" 

I nodded and turned to Leyla, "How long is the walk?" 
"About 8 to 10 minutes, maybe 5 if you run," Leyla answered with a faint laugh, "Once you reach the straight head to the left and walk straight down, it's called Ronnie's Gas with a big red sign." 

"Sounds good to me, let's go." Demi already began to walk up the path that leads up the hill towards the road. 
I smiled and motioned towards Melody, "Thank you Leyla. Let's go Mel, you two can catch up later."

"Can I have your phone number? Maybe once I get service I can text you for us to meet up later, we could go swimming." Melody asked facing Leyla as she walked backwards towards me.
"My parents take away my phone when we're on vacation so no, but swimming sounds fun. Could we meet up for a night swim? I'll meet you here since your lake has great lighting, your Moms can join too."

Melody nodded, "Sure! What time?" 
"9 p.m will be best for me."
"That works, I'll see you tonight!" Melody approved.

Leyla nodded with a smile and began to walk off towards the direction that Melody and she ran from. I looked down at Melody, "Since when do you like night swimming?"
"I don't know, I've had an urge to try it since we got here. It'll be cool to swim at night in a lake don't you think?"

"Can you two hurry up?! I'm hungry!" Demi called out from the street, she was already standing off of the path and waiting for Melody and I. 

〰️〰️

We thankfully made it to the gas station Leyla explained to us without any sort of struggle. 

Demi, Melody and I stood in line fighting to hold the amounts of food that we found, since it's a gas station and not a grocery store, there's no baskets or carts to help us. People usually just walk in and grab a few things, but we needed some stuff to last. 

Once it was finally our turn next in line each of us poured out the handful of snacks, microwavable meals, and drinks that we could find onto the countertop for the worker to scan. 
The man rose an eyebrow as he began to scan, "You ladies from around here? Don't think I've seen you before." 

"No we're just here for a few weeks, staying down at a lakehouse," I answered him as I began to pull out my wallet. 

The man paused and immediately one of his co-workers that were eavesdropping ran to his side, "Please don't tell me that you ladies are staying down at Clearwater lake." The women frantically stated. 

I smiled awkwardly, "We are. What's so bad about Clearwater? Our uber driver explained that he's heard some myths about it but didn't get into detail."
 

"They aren't myths, that lake makes people go crazy." The woman's eyes were wide open with fear, "So many bad things have happened there I've lost count. My family and I stayed there once when we were kids and never looked back, I'm surprised we even made it out." 

"Um..." Demi slowly made her way into the conversation, "Can you keep scanning our food, please? We haven't eaten yet for the day." 
I watched the worker nod and he continued to scan our items, "You're surprised you made it out of what? What happens there?"

"Excuse me? Can some employees help me out over here? I can't reach this!" Some customer called out from the soda section which alarmed the woman immediately, "Sorry ma'am I have to go help a customer. If you want to know so badly try to stick around for 10 minutes so we can chat." With that said she scurried off towards the customer. 
 

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Hello, now that I am done with my lessons and out of college for the Summer I will have more time to update. There are many clues in this chapter as to what is going on so enjoy :)

xo 

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