It's us {Dani and Jamie}

A man's last phone call

    20 minutes earlier...

Thanks to Owen's wildly illegal speeding and the low traffic of Bly's country roads, he and Hannah reached town in no time at all. They parked at the first building they saw that could possibly contain a telephone - which happened to be the little pub below Jamie's flat - and clambered out of Owen's car like it was on fire.
   
"CanIuseyourphone?"
   
"What?" The bartender asked, turning around to face the frantic customers that had just burst through his door.
   
"Ineedtouseyourphone!" Owen cried.
   
"Talk slower!"
   
"HE NEEDS TO USE YOUR BLOODY TELEPHONE, WHERE IS IT?" Hannah shouted.

A few heads turned on their barstools.

The bartender raised a timid finger towards the wall.

The dial wouldn't turn quick enough under Owen's shaky fingers, so Hannah took hold, spinning the rotary wheel like her life depended on it - which, unbeknownst to herself, someone's did.

"Wait," Owen said suddenly, "Who are you calling?"

"Who do you think? The cops."

"God, we can't call them, what would we say? 'There's a ghost on the loose at the manor, we need you to go inspect the lake for the dead body of a woman that died 300 years ago.'"'

"You're right..."

"Henry!" Owen exclaimed, "Call Henry!"

Hannah frowned skeptically, "The children's uncle? Would he even pick up?"

"We don't have any other options."

She shrugged and turned the dial...

***

Henry Wingrave was having a very unlucky night.
   
First his watch went missing, then it started raining and then his car broke down on the side of the road. Now he was sitting in a lousy little diner with pencil markings carved into the booths with a soggy umbrella leaning against his legs.
   
Little did he know how unlucky this night could really become.
   
The diner was on the outskirts of a little village on the outskirts of an even littler village that was bordering none other than the infamous town of Bly.
   
His little niece and nephew, just a few minutes away, how 'bout that.
   
Not that he would be visiting, of course. No, no, no, he had stopped visiting months ago on the account of...
   
Well on the account of a tragic accident.
   
Yes, an accident, of course, everyone knew what happened, it was common knowledge. The children's father had drowned in the lake. A sunny midmorning afternoon, there he was.
Bobbing like an apple.
   
But Henry knew something that wasn't common knowledge, not common knowledge in the slightest. In fact, the only people that knew this information were he and a certain woman. A woman who lived in a lake.
   
Henry felt himself reliving it for whatever reason, right there in that lousy diner with the ding of the order bell piercing his brain. Maybe it was the close proximity to the children that brought it on? Who knows.
   
He recalled the Lady of the Lake with stale dread. How once she decides that she cares for you, things turn dark. Fuzzy. You can't seem to remember what you were doing, or where you were at a certain point in the day. Ominous feelings follow you, everything is jumbled. Up is down, right is left, ones you once thought were friends suddenly seem like enemies...
   
But she's not smart anymore, the Lady in the Lake. Her time in the water didn't just wash away her face, it erased her mind too. She doesn't remember that you aren't her husband, all she sees is a person who loosely fits the role and latches on to that - whatever shred of memory she still has left.
   
So it wasn't necessarily surprising that she mistook the children's father for Henry that day by the lake. But when Henry came outside and saw what happened... all he could feel was shock.
   
He couldn't stay at Bly. The children would be fine, he would hire an au pair. Yes, an au pair, that would be good for them. And he would go far far away. Far away from the guilt he felt whenever he looked in their eyes - she wanted it to be me, he couldn't help but think.
   
No, it was far too much to bear if he stayed.
   
The one thought that kept him going all this time, shuffling about his work like a mindless bee, was the fact that his niece and nephew were safe. The lady had gotten what she wanted - at least she thought she did. There was nothing left to hurt them.
   
Henry took a sip of the coffee a waitress had placed in front of him - blegh, terrible.
   
That was when the phone rang. He heard it, faintly, from the front desk, but it was muffled by the chatter and sound of cutlery on plates.
   
The worker spoke for a moment - a confused question to the person on the other line? But then he poked his head out into the seating area and locked eyes with Henry himself, sitting alone at a table.
   
The call was for him.
   
"Who in god's name is-"
   
"HENRY!"
   
He held the phone away from his ear, "Jesus, who is this?"
   
"It's Hannah, sir, we've got a-"
   
"How the hell did you find me?"
   
"We called your office and they said you were at a conference in a certain hotel but they said you weren't there so we tried--ughh, it doesn't matter!"
   
"What's going on?"

"There's a problem at Bly and--well the dead lady--we were by the lake and--we need you--"
   
"Wait," He pressed the phone tight against his face, "Did you say dead lady?"

**Ok. Ngl, this part kinda got away from me a little bit, Idk if it makes sense. Basically the same thing that happened to Dani and Flora happened to Henry. The Lady in the Lake drowned the Dad by mistake, thinking it was Henry.

***

There's nothing like speeding on wide open country roads. Nothing more freeing, nothing that makes you feel more alive, in Henry's opinion. Except of course when you're hurtling towards certain doom, in this case.
   
All he could think of was Flora and Miles. Their faces, flashing across his vision as he drove. How could he be so stupid? How could he not realize it would happen again? The lady in the lake didn't have a memory, of course she would find new victims!
   
But he would make it right. He had to. For the kids.
   
The gates approached. Dread and Hope.
   
The car had barely come to a complete stop before he clambered out of his vehicle, stumbling through the darkness.
   
He heard shouts near the lake - a woman - the gardener!
   
What was her name? Julie?
   
It didn't matter now because he had spotted her. She sat woozily against a tree, eyes fluttering shut. That blow would definitely cause a scar or two, but there were more pressing things to attend to.
   
Oh, that poor au pair. She had no idea what she had gotten herself into when she applied for this job.
   
And there she was. The Lady in the Lake.
   
Dripping hair, dripping dress, dead hands clamped onto the woman and Flora.
   
Ankle deep in lake.
   
"HEY!" He cried.
   
Nothing. Knee deep.
   
"TURN AROUND!"
   
Waist deep.
   
He sloshed in after them, grabbing onto whatever he could - his fingers wrapped around slimy black hair, pulling the head back.
   
She didn't like that.
   
Her face was more dreadfully smooth than he remembered.
   
His breath came heavily as he looked between Flora and her au pair - brainwashed. Blindly following this corpse to their graves.
   
No, he wouldn't have it. This was all his fault. All his fault...
   
And then he said the words that his something deep within knew would end his suffering and everyone around him.
   
"It's you," He rasped, "It's me. It's us."
  
Some of the anger softened in the woman's face. Her grip loosened on Flora and the au pair.
   
"It's you." He said with more confidence, "It's me. IT'S US."
  
And that was it for Henry Wingrave. His unlucky night was over. His unlucky life would be over as soon as he got one last look at -
   
Ahh yes.
   
His niece.
   
The last thing he saw before his head was engulfed by water was his sweet, sweet Flora.
   
What a way to go.