The Lady of Dark Lake

by Raven Snow

  Destiny held the end of the incense stick over one of the candles. The incense burned a bright red, and she let it smolder for a while as she continued. “Andrea never thought much of this side of me, of the witchcraft stuff. She never made a secret of how weird she found it which, I guess, is better than talking about you behind your back.” She gently blew out the flame on the incense and placed it in its holder. The smoke curling up from it was thick and musky.

  “I take it Riley was a little more accepting of… all this?” Lady motioned broadly at the table.

  Destiny nodded. “He absolutely was. He was fascinated by it. His parents had taught him to respect this side of Dark Lake when he was growing up.” Destiny groaned and winced. “His parents. I wonder how they’re taking all of this.”

  Dom returned to the coffee table with a steaming mug of his own. Lady didn’t let them get down to business quite yet, though. She still had a lot of questions. The one at the forefront of her mind was the first she blurted out. “So, the two of you think Andrea killed Riley?”

  Destiny shook her head, which came as a shock to Lady. “I don’t think she’s a murderer. I’ve known her for a long time. She’s a lot of things, but I don’t think murderer is one of them.”

  “I’ll reserve judgement,” said Dom, glancing at Destiny as he spoke. “I think she’s guilty, but… we’ll know soon enough.”

  “How will we know?” asked Lady. She looked down at the coffee table at all that was spread out on top of it. How was a drawing of an eye, lighting some candles, and a stick of incense supposed to tell them who killed Riley? And, if all these things could tell them the identity of a murderer, why hadn’t they done this sooner?

  “Why don’t you hold your questions for the end?” Dom didn’t frame his words like a question. He sat his mug on the floor to his right. “Is everyone ready?”

  Destiny nodded. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be ready for exactly,” said Lady.

  “Just close your eyes and open them when I say so,” said Destiny. “When you do that try to focus your attention there, on that eye in the center.”

  “Whatever you say.” Lady settled down into her beanbag chair and looked around the table. “So, are we starting now? Should we join hands or—”

  “Just close your eyes,” snapped Destiny.

  Lady sighed but did just that. The room grew silent. Only a breeze outside was audible. She could hear it rustling through the trees and howling past the windows. A storm was on its way.

  After a few seconds, Lady cracked one eye open. She couldn’t resist. She felt self-conscious sitting there, like she was the only one with her eyes closed and everyone else was laughing at her expense.

  Dom and Destiny both had their eyes shut. Their faces were blank and impassive. The only movement Lady saw was a blur of orange as Lion climbed into her lap. She closed her eyes again and dropped one hand into her lap to pet him.

  “Visualize Dark Lake. Visualize the water,” said Destiny. “Visualize Riley.”

  Lady had a little trouble seeing Riley. It wasn’t like she had ever met him. She had to think back to the picture at the police station. She saw his earnest smiling face between those of Destiny and Andrea.

  “Riley is speaking,” Destiny continued. “He’s telling us how he died. He’s telling us who was there when he died.”

  In her mind’s eye, Lady was visualizing a man’s body hovering over the surface of the lake. She was watching him from the pier. Even at the distance she was standing out, she thought she could see his lips moving. She couldn’t hear the words that were coming out of them, she only knew that he was saying something.

  “Open your eyes,” said Destiny. It took Lady a moment to realize she was addressing Dom and herself.

  Lady did as she had been told. She looked to the drawing of the eye. Destiny was reaching over it, her dagger in hand. She brought the edge of it quick down her opposite forearm. Lady gasped at the sudden violence and at the blood that dripped onto the white pupil of the eye.

  “It’s okay,” Destiny assured her, but Lady didn’t quite buy it. She wished she had been warned about the blood. She probably wouldn’t have joined in if she knew there would be self-mutilation involved.

  At least there wasn’t much blood. The cut on Destiny’s arm was shallow and short. Not that Lady was even sort of willing to do that to herself. Thankfully, Destiny didn’t demand that of her.

  Lady forgot about the cut soon enough. It was the eye that caught and held her attention. The paper was absorbing the blood. Or was it the eye absorbing the blood? Lady was inclined to believe the latter. The lines were growing thick and red, starting at the center and moving outward. It was making a sound too. Lady wasn’t sure what to call the sound exactly. It was sort of like a hum.

  “Andrea,” said Destiny.

  A sharp wind blew through the room. The candles sputtered and went out. The incense swirled. Lady’s hair fluttered up and around her face.

  And then it was over. The room was silent and still again. Dom was taking a sip from his still-steaming mug.

  Lady looked around the table. Lion was still sitting in her lap. Destiny was leaning back in her beanbag chair and sipping from her own mug. “Was that it?” asked Lady, not sure what else to say. She couldn’t deny that what she had just seen was strange, but it hadn’t exactly answered any of her questions.

  “For now,” said Destiny, which was more vague an answer than Lady would have liked.

  “So, what did that do exactly?”

  Dom started rolling the parchment on the table up. Destiny just sank deeper into the beanbag where she sat. “If Andrea was the killer, that will bring her back to the scene of the crime tonight.”

  “I thought you said that you didn’t think she was capable of murder?”

  “Maybe killer is too strong a word,” said Destiny, though she didn’t explain why.

  “So now what?”

  “Now we wait.” Dom walked to the kitchenette and tossed the scroll in the trash. “We wait until night, and then we go down to the marina to see if she shows.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Lady wasn’t sure how her day had taken such a turn. If you had asked her two days ago where she would have pictured herself where she would be now, it wouldn’t be hiding at the Marina with Destiny and Dom. Heck, she wouldn’t have imagined she would still be in Dark Lake.

  “You hungry?” asked Dom, holding a bag of chips in her direction.

  Lady looked down at the bag of chips. She had listened to it crinkling and Dom crunching for the last twenty minutes. “I thought we were supposed to stay out of sight.”

  “We are out of sight.”

  “Call me crazy, but I figured staying out of sight included not being heard.” They were sitting under a large oak tree near the pier. It was dark and the sky was cloudy. It was doubtful they would be spotted if someone wasn’t looking for them.

  Dom moved in a way that suggested he was shrugging. “A storm is coming in. She won’t be able to hear us over that.”

  They had been anticipating the storm for a while. Destiny had brought an umbrella from home. It was open above them now, ready to catch any rain that made it through the branches of the oak tree. Lady could hear thunder in the distance. She wasn’t looking forward to waiting around under a tree when the weather really got bad. “What do we do if she doesn’t show up?”

  “We’re going to wait for a while,” said Destiny. She reached across Lady and took a handful of chips.

  “Yeah, I got that. What if she doesn’t show, though? How long are we going to wait?”

  “Until morning if that’s what it takes.” Despite crunching on chips, Destiny looked determined. Her jaw was set and her posture was straight. She was on high alert and had been since they’d arrived at the marina. “Don’t get me wrong. Nothing would make me happier than Andrea not showing up.”

  “What does it mean exactly if she doesn’t show up?”

  “That she didn�
�t do it, and… maybe Riley just drowned on his own.”

  Lady detected a note of sadness in Destiny’s voice. “You don’t sound like you think that’s very likely.”

  “Not with the kelpie there. The energy surrounding his death is so restless. He wouldn’t have any reason to be out there swimming alone either. No… someone had a hand in this. I know it wasn’t me, so that just leaves…” Destiny didn’t finish that sentence. She didn’t need to. She sighed.

  Lion squeezed himself between Lady’s tucked-in knees and her chest. He provided some warmth in the chilly night air. She petted him and was comforted by his familiar rumbling purr.

  “He’s your familiar.”

  “Huh?” Lady looked up. It took her a moment to realize that Dom had spoken to her.

  “He’s your familiar,” Dom repeated. “I don’t know for sure, but if I had to bet money…”

  “My familiar.” Lady didn’t get a chance to explore that concept and what it implied further. Destiny gripped her arm with a sharp shushing sound.

  Lady almost asked Destiny what she was getting at, but then she saw it. Someone was stepping off the trail that led to the pier. They stopped at the edge of the planks and grew very still.

  It was strange how well Lady could suddenly see in the darkness. It wasn’t that her eyes had adjusted. Rather, there was a light coming off the lake. It wasn’t the reflection of any moon or stars that Lady could see. Clouds were still covering up most of the sky and, if the thunder growing louder was any indication, it should have been darker than ever. Somehow, there was still plenty of light to see by. An ethereal glow was coming off of the surface of Dark Lake. The water itself was as still as the shape at the foot of the pier.

  “Is that Andrea?” Lady whispered, but Destiny only shushed her again.

  It had to be Andrea. The shape was decidedly feminine. Cloth shorts and a tank top clung to soft curves. Her feet were bare and a ring of keys dangled from her right hand. It was like Andrea had climbed out of bed and into her car without stopping in between. Maybe that was part of the power of the spell they had performed. The call put out had been urgent and one she couldn’t ignore.

  Lady glanced first to Destiny and then to Dom. They were both paying careful attention to Andrea. Lady wanted to ask what they were waiting for and what they were meant to do next, but she knew she would just be told to shut up again.

  A shape appeared on the water. Lady thought her eyes were playing tricks on her at first. She thought a spotlight had turned on, maybe from a passing boat or the opposite shore. It blinded her initially and made her squint.

  Andrea stepped onto the pier and began walking slowly down it. Lady saw the shape in the water become more defined. It was a person, like the ghostly figure of Riley she had seen during the spell earlier.

  Destiny stood. So much for staying hidden. Dom followed her lead and stood as well. “Um?” Lady began. No one acknowledged her, but she stood up anyway. She wasn’t going to be the last one sitting there, not when everyone was walking closer to the shoreline.

  Andrea didn’t hear them approach. She was wholly focused on the water and the figure standing on its surface. Evidently, she could see it as well.

  Lady really wished this whole thing had been explained to her before they got here. She opened her mouth to ask a question but stopped. Instead she reached for Dom’s arm and tugged on his sleeve.

  “Hmm?” Dom hummed softly and leaned down level with her. Lady couldn’t help but note just how far he had to lower himself for that. God, he was big.

  “What’s going on?” Lady whispered so softly she couldn’t be heard by Destiny.

  Dom pointed. “Just keep watching. We’re about to see what really happened.”

  Lady nodded and focused her gaze intently upon the water. She was beginning to wonder if there was still something she was missing when light and movement caught her eye.

  There were two new figures on the docks. Andrea stumbled back and fell into a sitting position. There was another version of herself standing in front of her, a version made of the same ethereal ghostly light as the figure of Riley standing out on the water.

  The Andrea made of light was wearing a t-shirt and cut-off shorts. “You don’t want to do this. You’ll thank me later. I know you.”

  A second figure made of light was on the pier. It was a slim man with his hands jammed in his pockets. It was Riley. It had to be. “Andrea, I don’t know how many other ways I can say it. I don’t… I think we should see other people.”

  “We’ve been together since high school.”

  “Which is why, maybe, we need to see what else is out there for a little while.”

  “I know what else is out there.” Andrea’s voice was demure. She slipped her arms around Riley’s waist and leaned into his chest. “I don’t want any other guys. I want you, baby.”

  Lady could see how Riley hesitated in raising his hand and smoothing back Andrea’s hair. “And maybe that’s how it’ll work out. Maybe we’ll get back together.”

  “Seeing other people is a waste of time. I don’t want to—“

  “But I do!” Riley pushed Andrea back to arm’s length. “I shouldn’t have to argue with you about this. You can’t just decide we’re not breaking up. It takes two people to—“

  “I’m not going to find anyone else,” Andrea interrupted. “I know everyone in this stupid little town. There’s no one I like better than you.”

  “Andrea…”

  “Is there someone you like better than me? Who is she?”

  “I really don’t—Look, I’m dating someone else, and it’s not your business who!” snapped Riley. When Andrea winced, he lowered his voice. “Obviously, I still care about you. I’ll always care about you, but—”

  “I’m going for a swim.” Andrea pulled off her t-shirt, revealing her bra beneath.

  “What? No! Andrea—”

  “You should come with me.” Andrea dropped her shorts next. She had a good body, and that wasn’t lost on Riley. He looked her over and, even from a distance, Lady could see that Andrea was smiling. “Come swim with me,” she suggested again. “It’s humid tonight, right? Come on. It’ll clear your head.”

  “I don’t need to clear my head. I’m—Andrea!” Riley yelled after Andrea as she dove into the lake. She had great form. Swimming came naturally to her. “I don’t want to swim! Get back here!”

  “Come on!” Andrea splashed some water at him before backstroking away. “The water feels so good. Come on, baby.”

  “No!” Riley had lost his temper. His fists balled up at his sides. “You know, this is part of why I want to—why I have broken up with you! You’re impossible! You just—you just decide! You decide what’s going to happen any time we have a fight. It doesn’t matter if things don’t work out that way. You just get it in your head that everything is fine and it’s not! It’s not fine! Things haven’t been okay between us in months, years maybe!”

  Andrea had stopped a ways out from the pier. She was treading water. “Fine!” she screamed back after several seconds of silence.

  Riley’s tense shoulders sagged. “Yeah?” It was hard to tell if it was relief or sadness in him. Maybe it was a little of both. “Thank you, Andrea. Now come on back, will you?”

  “Fine!” she yelled again. Her head dunked under the water as she began to swim back. She was under for a long time. Riley took a step to the edge of the pier in obvious concern. When Andrea resurfaced it was with a shriek. “Riley!” she yelled his name around a mouthful of water. Her arms flailed and splashed.

  Riley crossed his arms over his chest and took a step back. “Stop messing around!”

  “I’m—” She went under. She came up again a few seconds later. “I’m not! There’s an under—There’s an undertow—Help!” Andrea vanished again beneath the water and, this time, she didn’t resurface.

  Riley stood on the pier for a good thirty seconds. His posture went from compact and rigid to erect and alert to anxio
us. He paced at the edge of the dock. “Andrea? Andrea!” He swore and Lady watched him leap from the dock without so much as removing his shoes.

  Riley’s form was not as good as Andrea’s. He was not as at home in the water as she had been. His strokes served to propel him forward, but his form was sloppy and his clothes were quickly weighing him down. He swam toward the center of the lake, to where he had last seen Andrea.

  It was a few seconds later that Andrea popped up behind him, much closer to the pier. She was laughing. Riley’s initial suspicions had been correct. She was playing a bad joke. Soon the whole situation turned into a bad joke.

  “I’m back here, baby!” Andrea called, one hand on the pier ready to pull herself back up.

  Riley spun and sputtered. He didn’t swim toward the pier. It wasn’t immediately clear, but Lady recognized the telltale signs from playing lifeguard at her old school. He was drowning.

  Andrea wasn’t so quick to realize what was happening. “Riley?” There was a smile In her voice at first. It didn’t last long. “Riley!” she swam out to where he was but stopped short. No doubt she knew the truth about rescuing someone who was drowning. She knew with a guy Riley’s size, there was a very good chance he would just pull her down with him. Andrea swam back toward the pier still calling his name, like that alone might be enough to keep him from drowning. She was shaking and crying as she pulled herself onto the pier. Lady was so drawn in by the whole scene that she almost missed it when the real Andrea dove into the water.

  “The heck is she doing?” asked Dom taking a step forward.

  That question didn’t need to be answered. There was still an ethereal Riley standing in the center of the lake. Andrea had chosen now when it was much, much too late to try and save him.

  “Andrea!” So much for staying hidden. Lady ran to the pier and took off down it. She jumped in without hesitation. In hindsight, she probably should have hesitated.

  At least Lady’s shouting had the intended effect of stopping Andrea. She turned in the water and looked back at Lady, her eyes wide. Lady barely had time to register that the ethereal shape of Riley was gone before Andrea vanished beneath the surface of the lake.