by Rick Hautala
My father had been born and raised in Hilton. It’s not much of a town, by any standard, but I always had fun whenever we’d visit. I remember thinking how it must have been kind of a cool place to be a kid. Although I haven’t been back in years, probably only once or twice since he died, I can imagine, even now, that in spite of cell phones, the Internet, and texting, the area has probably retained some of that quaint “small town” charm it had back then. There are places where the Twenty-first Century still hasn’t arrived.
We stopped along the way and ate lunch at Moody’s Diner on Route One before heading west along Route 201. My father didn’t appear to be in any particular hurry, and as far as I could tell, he wasn’t in a bad mood or depressed or anything. I do remember thinking how he struck me as ... distant, maybe, is the word. It was like he was preoccupied, thinking about something other than the drive. I’m sure now that it was his dreams he was mulling over. He was living half of his life, and right up to his dying day, I’ll bet he was trying to figure out how those two lives he led—one awake and one dreaming—might coincide.
We got to Hilton a little past three o’clock in the afternoon. Kind of late for a day trip. We drove through downtown but didn’t stop even though my father recognized a couple of people and waved to them as we passed. At the edge of town, I could see Watcher’s Mountain through the trees, off to the west. We turned onto a narrow dirt road that wound through a dense stand of pine trees. I didn’t recognize the road, and I was suddenly afraid.
“Where we going?” I asked.
This wasn’t the road to the old family homestead—I knew that much. My father’s parents were both dead, and my dad had only one brother, my Uncle Mike, who lived with his family in Saco. I’d been thinking all along that we had come out here so he could drive past the old house, and my dad could reminisce.
“I just wanna check something out,” my father said.
At least now, I remember hearing a certain tension in his voice, but at the time, I think I just shrugged and settled back in the seat, waiting to see where we ended up.
The road was a typical dirt road, the kind you find all over Maine. It wound through a long corridor of dense pine forest that shut out the sun except at high noon. I had my window open, and I remember the strong smell of pine wafting around me. I’ve always loved that smell, but for some reason, on this particular day, the smell made me sick to my stomach. Birds were singing deep in the forest, but their songs didn’t sound very cheerful. Not today.
“So—uh, where we going?” I asked again.
I wasn’t afraid of my father. I’d never been afraid of him even the few times I’d made him really angry by doing some bonehead thing. I trusted him like I’ve never trusted another person, before or since. But I realize now it was his fear I was sensing.
It was fear for my father as much as fear for myself.
The tall pine trees blocked out the sunlight, and my father’s face was all but lost in inky shadows. I kept trying to think of this excursion as fun, but I remember thinking this was how it must feel when you’re driving to a funeral.
“There’s a small lake out here that I want you to see before I ...”
He stopped before he finished the sentence, but I mentally finished it for him—before I die!
He was going to die ... at least he thought he was going to die, and he wanted to share something with me ... a family secret or something.
“Look over to the south there. See?” My father leaned forward and squinted as he pointed off to the right.
Through the trees, I caught a glimpse of sunlight sparkling on water. It looked like quicksilver flashing between the dense stand of trees.
“That there’s Watcher’s Lake,” my dad said. “And you see all these woods around here? We own it all.”
“Who does?”
“Us ... Me and Uncle Mike ...” He paused and took a deep breath. “And you.”
“All of it?” I asked, amazed as I scanned the area.
I think now that I should have been more excited than I was. I certainly was impressed, but the deep, cold gloom of the forest had seeped into the car and into my mind. Whatever else you could say about the land, it certainly wasn’t all that pleasant, even on a warm April or May afternoon. I could just imagine what it was like out here on a winter day.
“The old homestead is on the other side of the mountain.”
I knew Watcher’s Mountain well enough. It was a bit of a hike from my grandparent’s house, but there were a couple of times back when we visited in the summer, when my grandparents were still alive, that my dad and I climbed it. I vaguely remember seeing a lake or pond from the mountaintop, but no one ever said anything about it to me ... not until right then.
“So how come we never come swimming or canoeing out here?” I asked.
My father gave me a funny look. It makes sense to me now, but at the time, I remember being confused.
“We just … don’t,” he said, and there was a finality in his tone of voice that made me know that was the end of it, so I let it drop.
My father took a turn onto an even narrower dirt road, not much more than a path, really, with deep ruts. I could see we were getting closer to the lake. Something—probably the suspension—was making a loud bumping sound underneath the car. I was jostled up and down in my seat so much that, when I spoke to my father, my voice sounded all chattery.
“Why we coming down here today, then?” My voice trembled with fear, but if I had known then what I know now—especially after what happened an hour or so later—I would have been a lot more frightened.
“I want to check on something,” was all my dad said.
He frowned as he hunched over the steering wheel and looked up at what little patch of sky he could see above the pine trees.
“We probably should have waited, though,” he said, talking more to himself than to me.
I knew he was worried about it getting dark soon. Plus, the forest had this ... this weird feeling to it. Maybe it still does. It was like night came here a lot sooner than it does any place else on earth. I suspect memory and imagination have played tricks on me, on my memories, and I’ve exaggerated this feeling more than I should. But I swear I have a clear memory of feeling like the trees were closing in around us, and the sky was pressing down like it was made of something heavier than air. All around the car, the shadows under the trees were so dense it looked like they were opening up in front of us and then closing back behind us once we were past, keeping us in this kind of bubble that separated us from the real world.
“Maybe we should come back tomorrow,” I offered.
“It may be too late tomorrow,” my father said, and I could tell—and I’m positive this isn’t something I made up later—that he said the words before he thought them through. He caught himself, and the expression on his face made it clear he wished he hadn’t said anything.
“Too late for what?” I asked, unable to choke back my question even though I was afraid of the answer.
My dad forced a laugh and scruffed my hair.
“Hey, Sport. Don’t you worry about it, all right?” I could tell he was forcing it. The look in his eyes made me feel plenty worried.
The car crested a long, slow hill that curved around to the right. At the top, it dropped off, much steeper. The lake was close by on the right as we started down the hill slowly, the car bouncing all over the place like the shocks were finally gone. The shadows deepened around us like black water, swallowing us even though I could see sunlight reflecting off the water. The narrow dirt road ended at the bottom of the hill, and through a stand of pine trees, I saw a small wooden shack.
“Is that—” I started to say but then cut myself off, knowing my father would eventually tell me what was going on ... if and when he decided to.
As we pulled to a stop, I could see that the building wasn’t big enough to be a summer camp or anything. It was just a tiny shed that looked like it was used either as an outhouse or for storage. Its sides w
ere rotted, some of the shingles having fallen off, giving the shed a funny, gap-toothed look. Dark, black moss was growing up the sides like a fringe of an unkempt beard.
“Want to get out and to take a look around?” my dad asked.
Not really, I thought but didn’t say.
The car was as close as he could get it to the small shed. I remember thinking I should be excited about being at the lake. It was an adventure. Even though it was too early in the year to go swimming, I could have waded along the edge of the lake and explored.
I looked at my dad, wanting really bad to ask him again what we were doing out here, but I couldn’t get any words out. I could hardly breathe.
“I don’t really like this place,” I finally managed to say. I know my dad heard the tremor in my voice.
The sun was tipping the edge of the western horizon, making the forest on the opposite shore look like it was on fire. After a moment or two, though, I noticed something curious about the lake. The sky was streaked with bright red and orange clouds, but the water was dull and gray. It looked like how I imagined it would on a winter day, just before a blizzard. It was like the lake absorbed rather than reflected the sunset. I wanted to say something to my dad, but I wasn’t sure how to phrase it.
“I just want to have a look around, is all,” my dad said as he snapped open the car door and stepped outside.
I sat where I was for only a second before deciding that I would rather be with him in the woods than alone in the car, no matter how weird and creepy this place was.
The pine needles made a funny crunching sound under our feet as we walked down to the water. A soft, hissing wind whistled high in the trees overhead, but I couldn’t feel even the faintest stirring of a breeze against my face. Even with the sun going down the air was heavy and warm. Even so, a shiver ran up my back, and a cold tightening twisted deep in my gut.
“Dad ... Why’d we come out here?” I asked.
I was trying hard to keep my voice steady, but it was shaking and weak.
“I have to see something,” he replied, and I could tell by the dreamy edge in his voice that, once again, he was talking as much to himself as to me.
“It’s about the ... dreams.”
I wanted to ask him What dreams? but I already knew. He meant the dreams where he feels like he’s not asleep, where he feels like what’s happening to him while he’s asleep is really happening.
“It was a long time ago,” he said, his voice distant and so low I could barely hear him above the sighing of the wind overhead and the crunching of the pine needles beneath our feet. “And it happened out here.”
I wanted to ask What happened? but couldn’t.
We were close to the lake, now. The faint stirring of wind coming off the water carried a damp, fishy smell that just about made me gag. Even with the wind rushing across the water, though, the surface of the lake was as flat and smooth as a polished mirror ... just like a mirror except for one thing: a mirror reflects things. I couldn’t see even the faintest trace of reflections in the water. My eyes weren’t adjusting to this odd lighting. It was like I was looking at something that had a different dimension to it or something. I know how weird this sounds, but something made me really afraid of the water.
“There used to be a summer camp here. Long ago. We came out here ... my friend, Billy Carrol and me.” My dad’s voice got distant and dreamy. “We weren’t supposed to be out here. We knew that, but—you know how kids are. We did it anyway.”
I couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t talking directly to me, that he had forgotten I was even there with him. He stared out across the water, and I remember thinking that the lake must look weird to him, too, because his eyes didn’t appear to be focused quite right. They had a milky, glazed cast that scared me. They reminded me of the eyes of this blind kid in school, Hank Randall.
The wind picked up, and as it did, a low, hollow whistling sound filled the air. At first, I thought the sound was coming from behind me, maybe from the old shed, but when I turned around and looked in that direction, the sound shifted and seemed to come from behind me again.
I turned quickly, trying to get a fix on it, but no matter where I looked, the sound thrummed softly, like someone was standing behind me, blowing gently into my ear. At times, I imagined it was the faint sound of distant music. And with the sound, the smell I’d gotten a whiff of earlier got much stronger, smelling like something rotting.
“It was in the summertime,” my dad continued, still acting like he was unaware I was there with him. “Just around sunset ... like this ... only in the summer. We’d been playing baseball, down at Pingree Field. We’d ridden our bikes to the game and were heading home, but for some reason ... for some goddamned reason—I don’t even know whose idea it was—we decided to come out here instead.”
“What, were you gonna go swimming or something?” I asked.
The sound of my voice barely intruded on his awareness. He shook his head slowly as through he was in a dream and was struggling hard to wake up. I was gagging from the decayed smell that was getting stronger. It reminded me of rotting fish or sour vomit and ... something else ... something so horrible and noxious that it’s still indescribable, no matter how hard I’ve tried over the years to find words for it.
“Yeah, but then ... Billy disappeared,” my father said, “and ... Oh, Jesus! It’s happening again!”
I looked up at my dad, wondering what he was talking about. In the gathering gloom, his eyes widened, and he pointed with a trembling hand out over the water. The flat, dimension-less surface of the lake was still, perfectly smooth and unruffled, but now that the sun had dropped behind the trees on the far shore and stars were starting to twinkle in the sky, the color of the water rapidly deepened as well.
Too rapidly, I thought, and then my father whispered hoarsely, “See ... Out there... There it is.”
As much as I didn’t want to look, I tracked my eyes out over the lake. After a moment or two, I saw what he meant. The center of the lake was ... thickening is the only word that comes to mind. The water was turning a deep black—as black ... no, blacker than the oncoming night. And in the very center of the lake, a round patch of darkness was spreading out slowly like an ink stain seeping into cloth. But this stain didn’t fade on the edges as it spread out. It deepened, if that’s possible, as thick, winding strands of pitch black radiated out from its center.
I stared at what was happening to the lake, overcome by a feeling of intense vertigo. I couldn’t resist the nauseating feeling of falling forward, spiraling headfirst into that thickening darkness. No matter how desperately I wanted to look away, I couldn’t. Twisting, waving, black arms reached out to me, and I watched in stunned silence as a hideous shape gathered and took on a three-dimensional quality as it rose up out of the water. Coiling strands of darkness clawed at the night, spraying fetid water in all directions. I knew, if that darkness reached me … and touched me, I would be destroyed by a cold vacuum as deep and lifeless as space.
“...run...”
I heard the word distantly. It barely registered in my brain. I couldn’t move ... I couldn’t breathe or swallow or blink my eyes. Frozen with fear, I didn’t move as this darkness, deeper than the gathering night, quivered and rose above the water’s surface. Black tendrils twisted and writhed, taking on hideous shapes that I was and still am powerless to describe. The horrible stench of rot and death filled my throat and chest, gagging me.
“Bobby! Run! It’s real! Get the hell out of here! Now!”
My father’s voice came to me as if from an impossible distance, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying. Vaguely, I knew I had to save myself, but I was frozen with fear, riveted where I stood.
The black, amorphous shape shifted and grew into impossible dimensions as it covered the night sky, blocking out the stars and casting a thick shadow across the land. Thick, rounded shadows streamed across the ground, swallowing, embracing eve
rything in their path as they moved closer and closer to where my father and I stood.
Still unable to move, I suddenly felt something grab me roughly by the shoulders and spin me around. As soon as I wasn’t looking at the monstrosity on the lake, its hypnotic spell was broken. My body was rigid as I lurched forward and then, just to keep my balance, I started to run.
Even after all these years, I find it impossible to describe the fear that gripped me.
It wasn’t just my imagination.
The cold and horrible emptiness of that darkness gathering behind me filled me with terror. I realize now, all these years later, that I wasn’t just imagining it. There was a cruel, unfathomable intelligence inside that darkness that didn’t so much want to destroy me as it had no awareness or regard for pitifully small human fears and emotions. It was the cold, uncaring destructive power of the eternal void that swept away whole worlds as easily and unthinkingly as it destroyed human life.
I have no idea how, but somehow I made it back to the car. I have a single, clear mental image of my hands fumbling to open the car door open, and then, more vaguely, I remember hurling myself onto the front seat and slamming the door shut behind me before rolling onto the car floor.
Even then I knew I wasn’t safe as I cowered on the floor, whimpering and curled up in a fetal position with my head down and my hands covering my head. The darkness outside was still rising, still swelling and gathering power, sucking energy from the night. I heard a soft, strangled cry, but it was a while before I realized I was making the sound. By the time I did, I knew ... I could feel that the darkness had retreated. My face was streaked with tears and snot as I cautiously raised my head and looked down toward the lake.
The night was too dark to see clearly, but the stars were shining through the trees. Behind me, a half-moon had risen, casting a silvery glow over the shore. Long dark bars of the shadows of trees scored the shoreline like pinstripes. I remember being surprised that the lake now looked like it was back to “normal,” whatever the hell that means. Its water reflected shimmering starlight, and far out in the center, I could see that a gentle breeze was ruffling its surface, giving the lake a beaten-metal look.
