One Week in June | ONC2020

June 7th 3:00 PM

June 7th, 1816

We've finally arrived at the lake after three grueling weeks of travel. The settlement that's here is quaint, families from all over Europe arrived last year and have been staking their claim to the land near the lake. Our neighbors are nice enough, the Petrov Family, the father Igor and his two sons have been helping James build our house on the land we picked out.

It's sad to hear that Igor's wife died a few years ago today, she must have been a wonderful woman to raise such strong and kind sons. Igor has a bit of a temper about him, I hope the absences of their mother doesn't rotten the boys like it has their father.

We were invited over by some of the other settling families and they made a divine summer stew filled with wonderful vegetables they harvested from their garden that morning. Once we were done, we all went to the water for a late night swim. The summer water was warm from the heat of the setting sun, but once I dived under the surface the world completely changed. The summery night shifted into an icy tundra, freezing the water as it lapped up onto the sandy shores. I looked around at the others swimming in the water with me and they were just as mortified as I was. The water temperature is dropping by the second and we all scrambled to make it back to the shore. I only got about halfway before I noticed a shadowy figure watching us from the edge of the water. She was floating just above the top of the ice that guarded us from exiting the water onto the beach. She looked my way and began floating over the freezing cold water towards me, her surprise apparent as she floated over the other families panicking to get out of the water.

"How can you see me?" She asked, lifting me out of the freezing water with the snap of her fingers. I didn't say anything in response. "What do you want most?" She implored and I didn't hesitate with my answer.

"To live, for my family to live." She nodded her head at my quick reply. She snapped her fingers again and I'm whisked away to the cold, sandy shore. I watched as my husband is lifted out of the water as well, and his shivering body is placed next to me.

I rushed to help warm him up, but as I turned away from the lake I heard the screams start. I forced myself not to look as I helped my husband up and we hobbled towards the warmth of our neighbor's home. I looked back just before I closed the door to the cabin and saw that the lake was filled with our dead neighbors. The floating woman wickedly grinned at me from the water's edge as she whispered, "See you tomorrow." I slammed the door shut and cried for the loss of our friends.

I'm scared for my family.

Anna Marlow

"What is this?" I ask my Mom as I put the journal down. The leather binding holding the ancient pages together is practically falling apart from the 200 plus years of use.

"Your great great grandmother, give or take four or five greats, is Anna Marlow." Mom says as she sips on the cold lemonade she made for herself. I only wanted some hot tea, but looking at my untouched mug on the coffee table I know my drink is probably just as cold as hers by now.

"What does she have to do with what happened to my friends? It sounds like that creature took her friends just like mine, but I don't know why she left Anna or me alive."

"Just keep reading Reia, Anna explains everything that's happening to you in her next journal entry." My mother doesn't say anything further on the subject as she leans back into the armchair she's nestled in and closes her eyes. I guess that's the end of that discussion. I sigh and pick up the musty journal and continue reading.

June 8th, 1816

The spirit came back tonight. I waited all day by the lake to see it, praying that it had all been some sort of twisted nightmare, but when it surfaced out of the middle of the lake I knew everything that had happened was real and I wasn't going crazy. Or if I was, then the descent into madness was quicker than I could have ever anticipated.

The spirit, Rusalka, greeted me on the shore of the lake keeping her distance from the water that gently lapped up along the sand. She shared that in her past life she had once lived on this lake, but jealousy from someone she held dear led to her murder. She was pleased with the sacrifices I'd made to maintain my life and I was able to barter a deal with Rusalka for my safety and the safety of my family. She promised our lives would be full of wealth and longevity for my children and my children's children; the only thing that she requested that the same sacrifices be made to her every 20 years. I'm supposed to bring live, human sacrifices into the lake's water during the second week of June. She'll take their bodies and souls for sustenance during her hibernation within the depths of the lake.

I heard from other families that this last winter was too cold and too harsh for most people and that many perished in the freezing temperatures. I couldn't deny her request for fear that my family would meet the same icy grave as so many others. Rusalka said she requires 10 people within this week, so I'll need to find 4 more victims to bring her, otherwise our deal is null and the Rusalka will take my family away from me.

God help us,

Anna Marlow

"So Anna damned everyone that we would come in contact with."

"Not necessarily," My mother sighs and leans forward, placing her now finished drink on the coffee table between us. "Rusalka only wants sacrifices every twenty years, so we can bring people to the lake in those nineteen years when she's dormant, but during this year, twenty years since I had to go through with my sacrifice cycle, she resurfaces seeking vengeance for the wrongs done to her while she was alive."

"And two hundred years doesn't cut it? What could have happened to her so many years ago that she still needs to kill?" I ask and Mom just shakes her head.

"That's what our family has been trying to figure out for generations. I've dug for hours through the local archives trying to find out what might have happened to Rusalka while she was alive to make her haunt the lake so violently."

"And nothing?"

"It's as if she never even existed in the first place. Or at least the person she was before she became the Rusalka." Mom puts her head in her hands and breathes deeply. My Mom is one of the best detectives at her precinct, so if she's not able to locate anything about Anna Marlow's connection to Rusalka, then there's no hope for me.

"What do we do?" I ask deflated, all the hope for my friend's return and this nightmare to be over has completely evaporated from me.

"You have to do what all the Marlow women have always had to do, you're going to have to find more people to sacrifice to the lake demon."