The Lady of Dark Lake

by Raven Snow

  “The Lady of Dark Lake”

  A Witch Cozy Mystery

  Dark Lake Chronicles Book 1

  Raven Snow

  © 2018

  Raven Snow

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner & are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Products or brand names mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders or companies. The cover uses licensed images & are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any person(s) that may be depicted on the cover are simply models.

  Edition v1.0 (2018.08.08)

  http://www.ravensnowauthor.com

  Special thanks to the following volunteer readers who helped with proofreading: Jim T., Brenda Rodgers, Renee Arthur, Suzy Ostapower, Claire Boland, Sue Fay, Dick B and those who assisted but wished to be anonymous. Thank you so much for your support.

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  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Authors Note

  Books by Raven Snow

  Chapter One

  Many people would have called the day an ugly one. The sky was overcast. Rain poured down from the heavy gray clouds, making it difficult to see out of the bus window, but Lady didn’t mind. The constant rainfall made it easier to nap. Napping was about all there was to do once it had grown dark. She had packed some books away for the trip, but she hadn’t thought to have any kind of small, discreet book light on hand for the eventuality of nightfall. The flashlight app on her phone would be obnoxiously bright. Besides, she didn’t want to wear out the rest of her battery.

  The phone in Lady’s purse vibrated a lot. She had turned off the ringer, but she could still feel it against her thigh. The first five or six times it had gone off, Lady had removed the phone from her purse to take a look at the screen. A part of her had hoped the call would be from her foster parents. Dante wouldn’t call, but maybe Leanne would. No such luck. If they had any qualms with her departure, they weren’t voicing them.

  It was Lady’s foster brothers calling. Alex and Max thought she was stupid for leaving. Max had been more tactful about his opinion, but Alex had come straight out with it. “Just get rid of the stupid cat,” he’d said, like it was that easy.

  The cat in question was the orange tabby cat currently nestled in Lady’s tote bag. It wasn’t like she had adopted the cat. It was more like the cat had adopted her. A little more than two years ago it had started showing up outside her window. Lady hadn’t encouraged it. Sure, she might have gone out and petted the cat a few times. How could she not? How could you see a cat purring on your windowsill and let it go unpetted? It wasn’t like she had fed him… at least not in those early days.

  Eventually the cat might as well have been Lady’s. She named him Lion, which was the beginning of the end. Once you named a cat, it was pretty much yours, wasn’t it?

  Lady reached a hand into her tote bag and scratched Lion between the ears. She felt him lean his head to one side, inviting her to scratch beneath his chin. For all her foster parent’s objections, Lion was an unbelievably well-mannered cat. It was a good thing too. The bus didn’t allow pets. Lady had no destination in mind, but she planned on taking it to the end of the line. Maybe she would decide on where to go by then, but it was unlikely. This whole trip she was making was unwise, but she had made up her mind. There was no turning back now unless she decided to admit she was wrong and willing to ship Lion off to the nearest shelter. She was willing to do neither, so a lengthy bus ride it was.

  Dark Lake, read the sign through the window. Lady could barely make out the words through the rivulets of rain streaming down the window. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a while. The thick glass was cool against her forehead.

  “Dark Lake stop coming up in five,” announced the driver. A few people in the back of the bus grunted and shifted. Mostly they sounded annoyed their own naps had been disturbed. Not that the bus driver had spoken very loudly. He normally repeated himself a few times in a deep, booming voice. Apparently, announcing their arrival to Dark Lake was more of a formality than anything. Maybe people didn’t normally stop there. Looking out the window, Lady could see why.

  Dark Lake was true to its namesake. There was a lot of water and a lot of darkness. It wasn’t even midnight, and Lady couldn’t see a single light on as they drove down a road labeled Main Street. Everything was closed. This was the sort of small town that shut down early. Everyone turned in at a reasonable hour and woke at the crack of dawn. It was a far cry from what Lady was used to. Where she lived previously, there was a bustling dive bar across the street. She could hear it blasting eighties hair metal at all hours. That sort of thing might have annoyed most people, but Lady had found it to be a comfort. It was the idea of a town like the one outside her window that made her skin crawl. All that silence. All that inky blackness. Lady closed her eyes. They would be past it soon enough… At least, that was the plan.

  Lion mewed and Lady’s eyes shot open. It was the first time he had made a sound during the entire drive. He was a good cat, unnaturally good. He knew he wasn’t allowed on the bus, that he was supposed to be hidden. Lady felt sure of that.

  A few people raised their heads and looked around. Lady’s heart pounded in her chest. She tried to look equally puzzled. The driver hadn’t said anything. Maybe he hadn’t heard. Maybe none of these people were sure of what they had heard. For all they knew, someone on the bus was just listening to cat videos on their phone a little too loudly.

  Lion mewled again, louder this time. Lady shoved her hand in her tote bag. He squirmed like he was trying to get out and Lady buried a hand in his fur, willing him not to. She scratched beneath his chin. That was usually his favorite place to be scratched. He was having none of it today. He twisted away from her with an even louder meow.

  A head and pair of hands shot up over the seat in front of Lady. A little girl with wide, curious eyes stared at her and then the tote bag. “Do you have a kitty?” she asked.

  “Um.” Lady looked around. There were quite
a few eyes on her. She could just make them out, glinting in the darkness of the bus. “No?” She tried to deny the meowing cat in her bag, but it came out as more of a question.

  The little girl in the seat in front of Lady didn’t believe her for a second. She smiled and laughed, like she had just been told a funny joke. “Can I see her?”

  Lady opened her mouth to correct the girl, tell her that Lion was a boy. She bit down on her tongue instead as she realized that would be a stupid thing to do. Inside the bag, Lady gave the scruff of Lion’s neck a squeeze. It shouldn’t have hurt him. It didn’t seem to hurt him, but it didn’t silence him either. He meowed again, this time squirming past Lady’s arm and poking his head out of the bag.

  The little girl in front of Lady squealed in delight. She reached out a small hand to pet Lion. “Sit down,” said the man sitting beside her. He tugged the girl down in her seat, suppressing a yawn like he had just woken up.

  “But there’s a kitty,” insisted the girl, using a decidedly outdoor voice in the otherwise quiet bus.

  The man sitting beside the girl threw a look over his shoulder and toward Lady. He did so just in time for Lion to jump on the back of the seat. He swore and the girl giggled. She reached again for Lion, but he was too fast for her. He jumped into the aisle.

  “What’s going on back there?” demanded the bus driver. No one answered his question directly, but it couldn’t have been hard for him to figure out. He pulled the bus over onto a gravel shoulder. They had passed Main Street by. There wasn’t a good place to park a bus, but the roads were dead. “Whose cat is that?”

  Lion had pranced up to the front of the bus. Freed from his tote bag, he was sitting neatly on the stairs, licking his paws and grooming himself like this was an average day. Lady swallowed. With a glance around the bus, she raised her hand. “He’s, um, mine.”

  “No animals,” said the bus driver, firmly. “It’s not even in a cage.”

  “Sorry,” said Lady. What else could she say? “I didn’t know.” That was a lie. She had known a cat in a tote bag wasn’t going to fly.

  “You and the cat get off.”

  “Can you just take us to the end of the line?” Lady ignored the dirty looks she was getting from the rest of the people on the bus. “I’m sorry. He’s not… I don’t know why he’s acting like this.”

  “He’s a cat, and you’ve kept him God knows where for hours,” said the bus driver, like she was stupid at best, an abusive pet owner at worst.

  “No, I mean… He’s not normally like other cats.”

  “I don’t care how special your cat is. It’s against the rules. Now, go.”

  “But,” Lady began. She looked out the window, at the rain and the darkness and the long stretch of water and woods. “Can you at least take me to the nearest bus stop?” She didn’t know where that was, but surely there was one. Surely there was a better place to kick her out than a gravel shoulder on some backwater road in the middle of the night.

  “There’s not one anywhere near here.” It was difficult to tell if that was the truth or not. For all Lady knew, the bus driver just didn’t want to bother. Her fare had already been paid and the majority of the bus was clearly on his side. They were still shooting her dirty looks, angry at being woken up and having their journey slowed down. “Out.”

  Lady stood. She needed to grab Lion, but she hadn’t committed to getting off the bus yet. She left her bags on her seat. “This is illegal. You can’t just kick me out in the middle of nowhere.” Lady didn’t actually know whether or not it was illegal, but she did a good job of sounding sure of herself anyway.

  “And you can’t just sneak a cat onto a bus. Go.” The bus driver waited until Lady had scooped Lion up in her arms before opening the doors. Wind whistled past the opening, and rain splashed inside.

  “This is insane. You’re being insane.”

  “There’s some buildings back in that direction.” The driver motioned over his shoulder. “Shouldn’t be a long walk.”

  “Everything was closed!” Lady hadn’t meant to raise her voice. If the rest of the bus hadn’t been on her side before, they really weren’t now.

  “Something is bound to be open.”

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  “Not my problem. If you want to find out, you better start walking.”

  Lady turned and found that her tote bag and duffel had been dumped into the aisle. She swore and went to retrieve them. “Fine,” she snapped. “Fine. I’m going.”

  There was some scattered applause. Lady felt her face grow warm. She didn’t say anything else as she stomped down the aisle and down the steps. The doors closed and the bus was pulling away almost before she had stepped clear of it. “Great.” The rain was already weighing down Lady’s long blonde hair. “Well, I hope you’re happy.” She glared down at Lion. He was squirming again. He hissed, like the rain was somehow Lady’s fault. “What’s your problem? Do you have to go to the bathroom or something?” She dropped him onto the gravel, but the cat had no intention of standing around in the rain. He jumped onto Lady, hooking his claws through her clothes and into her skin. He climbed her and scrambled into the relative safety of her tote bag. “Are you kidding me?” Lady frowned at him in the tote bag but didn’t remove him from it. “Must be nice in there. Must be dry.”

  Lady turned her back to the bus as it vanished into the night. The tote bag was heavy on her shoulder. The duffel was even heavier. She had loaded her entire life into it before leaving home—or, rather, as much of her life as would fit. Inside the bag were her favorite outfits, a toothbrush, and some books to pass the time. A few trinkets had been thrown in for sentimental reasons but, aside from that, she had done her best to pack smart and practically. Lady was wishing she had packed even less now that she was faced with trudging back into town.

  Headlights blinded Lady. There was another car on the mostly empty road. Ignoring all the horror stories about hitch-hiking she had ever heard, Lady raised a hand to try and flag the approaching car down. The car sped past without slowing. It sprayed Lady with muddy water as it flew by. It went in her mouth and nose and made her sputter. She swore.

  Soaked and muttering to herself, Lady headed down the grassy incline and away from the road. She was fortunate the car hadn’t slammed into her with the luck she was having. Better to stay clear of the road until she reached a more populated area. Not that Lady even knew what she was going to do once she got there.

  The eponymous lake was nearby. It lived up to its name, looking especially dark in the stormy weather. Even close up the water was an inky black. “I should toss you in,” Lady grumbled to her tote bag. Inside, Lion was still, like he had never thrown a fit at all. Lady could almost swear she heard him purring. “You better not be happy right now. I really will toss you in the lake.”

  The grassy incline became steeper as Lady walked. There was no sandy beach. The land near the water remained rocky, though Lady thought she could see some buoys in the distance sectioning off a large section of water. People swam in the lake. To Lady’s right she saw a wooden building that might have been a changing room or maybe a stand for refreshments. She didn’t look at it too long. It was the graffiti on the side of the building that caught her attention. Drawn in white spray-paint was a stylized drawing of an eye. Its eyelashes curled into spirals. Its pupil was huge and dilated. “Creepy,” Lady mumbled to herself. From what little she had seen of Dark Lake, it hadn’t struck her as the sort of place to abide graffiti.

  Lady picked up her pace, eager to be off of the dark and empty beach. The bus hadn’t driven that far past Main Street. At least, it hadn’t felt like that was the case when she was in the bus. On foot, the distance was a different story. Lady had never been much for exercise. She wasn’t a runner. She wasn’t even a walker when she could help it.

  There were some street lights, and once more, buildings came into view. Lady was thankful for that, if nothing else. She felt safer under the glow of them. In reality, she was pr
obably about as safe now as she had been before—in other words, not very.

  Lady made a beeline for the nearest awning, parking herself in front of what claimed to be a butcher shop. The dome of red tarp over her head caught the rain, streams of it rolling off the corners. The steady beat of the rain was more comforting than annoying, once she was out of it. Lady shook like a dog. She clapped her hands together and rubbed them together for warmth. “This sucks,” she said to no one in particular. Lion was still motionless in her tote bag.

  After a few seconds worth of feeling sorry for herself and shivering, Lady rubbed her hands on her jeans, drying them off as best she could before she reached for her phone. She hoped it still had enough juice to show her the nearest place to crash. Lady was willing to take a homeless shelter at this point. She had never slept in a homeless shelter, but it had to be better than being caught out in the rain.

  The screen of the phone came to life with a touch. It had plenty of power to pull up the maps function. Thank goodness for small miracles. Lady did a quick search of her surroundings using the map on the phone.

  What little relief Lady had felt from finding an awning and her phone having plenty of charge was sucked away when she realized there wasn’t a whole lot to see. “Are you kidding me?” Lady looked up from her phone and at her surroundings, at the myriad shops lining the street. She looked down at the phone again. She might as well have been in the middle of a wheat field. The phone had no idea where she was. Dark Lake showed up on the map, as did Main Street, but there weren’t many details beyond that. The butcher shop she was standing in front of was a blank, as was the laundromat across the street. A burger joint a few blocks away showed up, as did a coffee shop. “Great.” They were out in the sticks. They had to be. “This is the middle of nowhere. This is literally the middle of nowhere.”