People often ask me what happened that summer. I see strangers in the streets look at me out of the corners of their eyes, as if I was a warning sign, telling them not to come close.
"Why weren't you infected?" "How did you escape?" "What happened?" These were all questions I had become too familiar with in the years following the events at Shadowfalls Lake.
Thinking back to that summer, I find myself dwelling on the endless possibilities of what could have happened. How Ryder and I could have escaped before it was too late, how I could have saved my parents, how I could have stopped the well beings.
I spend many hours of my days pondering these scenarios until I finally arrive back at the same answer; I couldn't have stopped it and I couldn't have saved them. After all, I was only 17 at the time.
Seven years later, and I still don't have the answers I need. Maybe I've blocked some of the memories out; that's what people do when they want to forget something, isn't it? Or maybe this is all a bad dream I'd wake up from soon.
But that's the thing with dreams, they end. You wake up and you're back in your bed, you're safe. My nightmares will never end. I'll never wake up and have the feeling of safety wash over me. I'll never experience that feeling again.
Of course, I remind myself, you were the lucky one. That's what people say, at least. "You got out, you lived." Maybe I did survive, but I'll never truly live again, at least not until I understand.
Maybe I should just accept it. Bow to the fact that monsters are out there and innocent people die. But I know I'll never do that. I've never been able to accept anything, ever. Maybe that's why I survived.
YOU ARE READING
The Events at Shadowfalls Lake
Mystery / ThrillerWhat happened at Shadowfalls Lake? Mia Beaumont was only 17 that summer, yet she's the only one that knows the events that took place there. What forces led to the deaths of those closest to her, and why does no one understand? The only person who h...
