What Waits in the Water

by Kieran Scott

  Finally, Hannah burst up out of the water, gasping for breath. There was water up her nose and she sputtered, then screamed … just as Jacob passed her by.

  She felt another tug.

  Hannah kicked as powerfully as she could and hit something hard. A rock? No. She tried to stop herself from thinking the next thought that swirled to life at the back of her mind. Because it made no sense. It couldn’t be a … a skull?

  On the shoreline, Katie, Alessandra, and Colin cheered for Jacob, who was plowing closer and closer to the rocky beach next to the dock. They weren’t even paying attention to her.

  “There’s something in the lake!” Hannah screeched, swimming like crazy toward shore, forgetting about form and function and just moving. “There’s something in the lake!”

  Jacob waded up onto dry land and began jumping up and down with his arms raised above his head in triumph.

  “Help!” Hannah shouted, struggling to catch her breath, terrified at every second the thing was going to grab her again. “Hey! Help!”

  Colin turned, his expression concerned. He said something to the others, but Hannah couldn’t hear what it was between the distance and all her splashing and sucking wind. Jacob finally stopped gloating and rushed back into the water. He waded toward her, grabbing her arm and pulling her up to standing. Her feet slipped on the algae-covered rocks.

  “What’s wrong? Is it a cramp?” he asked.

  “No!” Hannah gasped and coughed. “There’s something out there! Something tried to grab me!”

  There was a moment of silence during which all Hannah could hear was her own ragged breaths.

  “Come on, Hannah. Don’t be a sore loser,” Jacob finally said, shrugging her off as he waded back out of the water.

  Hannah followed him, her toes squishing into the soft, mushy lake bottom, tiny weeds sticking to her skin. Whatever was lurking beneath the surface of the lake, it hadn’t felt at all like this. It had felt solid when she’d kicked it, and when it had grabbed her, it had felt like it had … a purpose.

  “I swear to you, Jacob, something pulled on my leg,” Hannah insisted, brushing water off her face. “I’m not lying! And I’m not a sore loser. You know that. There’s something out there!”

  But even as she said it, she heard how insane it sounded. Something had pulled on her leg? What? A lake trout? Nothing in that lake had hands. A mouth, maybe. Teeth even. But not fingers. Not a skull as hard as stone.

  Had she imagined it? Had her subconscious realized she was going to lose and made the whole thing up?

  But no. No. She knew what she’d felt. And she’d been in the lead when it had happened.

  “Wow, I can’t believe you want to go home so badly that you’d make up a lake monster,” Katie said, laughing as Hannah and Jacob joined the others on the dock. “I swear, Hannah, it’s like you’re allergic to fun.”

  Alessandra guffawed at that, and even Jacob let out a chuckle at her expense. Hannah couldn’t believe he was laughing at her. It was as if he was breaking their lifelong, unspoken pact. Hot, humiliated tears sprang to her eyes. She could handle Katie mocking her, but Jacob?

  “You guys, back off.” It was Colin who spoke up. He had a low, sonorous voice that did strange things to Hannah’s heart, even as upset as she was. It felt as if someone had lit a little fire inside her chest. He looked at Alessandra. “You know she’s not the first person to think there was something weird out there.”

  Alessandra stopped laughing. In the distance, thunder rumbled.

  “What do you mean?” Hannah said.

  “Yeah, what are you talking about?” Katie asked. Colin and Alessandra continued to stare at each other. “Jacob.” Katie changed tactics. “What is he talking about?”

  “I have no idea,” Jacob said, and scratched his nose.

  But he was lying. He always touched his nose when he was lying.

  “Jacob—” Hannah started.

  “Okay, fine,” Jacob said. “There are these stupid stories about the lake being haunted.”

  Hannah’s heart thunked. She felt the fingers around her ankle all over again. “Haunted?” she repeated in a whisper.

  “And some people have seen things,” Colin added, putting his hands in his pockets. “Or, you know, said they saw things.”

  “Things?” Katie echoed.

  “Monsters,” Alessandra clarified, then rolled her eyes. “Or, monster. One. One lake monster … type … thing.”

  The thunder sounded again, closer this time, and the wind kicked up, sending a chill down Hannah’s wet spine. She hugged her bare arms, teeth chattering.

  “You’re—you’re kidding, right?” Hannah asked. “This is, like, a joke to mess with the outsiders.”

  “Yeah.” Katie laughed. “Ha ha. Very funny.”

  But no one else laughed. And Hannah had the oddest feeling that the island behind her was creeping toward her—like one of the trees was going to reach out a blackened claw of branches and snatch her back into the water.

  “Okay.” Hannah held up her hands. “Anyone gonna blame me for wanting to go back to Ohio now?”

  “Hannah, come on. It’s just rumors, right? And there’s no such thing as, like, a … lake monster.” Katie tried to sound unaffected, but her eyes were wide and Hannah could tell she was a little freaked.

  “Exactly,” Jacob said, taking Katie’s side, of course. “Do you really think my parents would have bought this house, or kept it, if there was a frickin’ monster out there?”

  He and Katie cracked up, and Hannah scowled at them. Why did it feel like Jacob kept mocking her?

  Colin shrugged. “Look. If Hannah wants to go home, we should just let her go home. It’s her choice.”

  Everyone fell silent. Colin’s voice was so authoritative, and so unexpected, it was like no one knew how to respond. Hannah certainly didn’t know how to respond. When had a hot, confident, likely popular-at-school guy like Colin ever taken her side on anything—ever defended logic instead of doing everything in his power to seem cool? Hannah could have kissed him—if she were an entirely different person and this were an entirely different universe.

  The thought made her blush. Colin’s brown eyes looked through her, almost as if he knew what she was imagining. He gave her a knowing smile and she just about keeled over.

  “Thanks,” she mumbled, wishing she had the fortitude to utter more than one word. She was still trying to wrap her brain around the fact that it was Colin who had spoken up for her and not Jacob. So much for that whole best friend thing.

  It began to rain then, in quick, stinging droplets. Colin, Alessandra, Jacob, and Katie made a run for the house, whooping. Hannah followed them more slowly, pulling her swim cap off and letting her hair tumble down over her shoulders.

  As suddenly as it had begun, the rain now started to come down in sheets, and the wind howled. It was a downpour. Just as she reached the house, Hannah paused and snuck a glance back over her shoulder. The rhythmic timpani of the rain surrounded her, and she breathed in that particular scent of freshly soaked earth. And in the distance, the misshapen outline of the half-dead island loomed.

  “Right hand, blue!”

  Hannah emerged onto the upstairs landing with her bag, hearing the laughter waft up from the living room. She looked down over the banister.

  Katie screeched as she reached for the blue circle on the Twister board, contorting her body around Jacob’s. Colin was reading the spinner, and Alessandra was basically doing downward-facing dog over Jacob’s head, her pose like a rock. Jacob was laughing, trying to hold his position, and Hannah wanted to scream. None of them even cared that she was leaving, and suddenly she started wondering if there really was something wrong with her. Why couldn’t she just relax and have fun like them? Why did she always have to be such a daddy’s girl?

  After showering and putting on dry clothes, Hannah had spent the last fifteen minutes staring at her phone. She hadn’t been sure what to do. Even though she’d lost the swim-r
ace bet, she could still reach out to her dad and tell him that Jacob’s parents weren’t there. Hannah knew her dad would insist she and Katie come home, or he’d drive to Michigan to retrieve them himself. And if he did that, Katie would freak out on her, call her a loser, accuse Hannah of making decisions for her. In the end, Hannah had decided she would just show up back home—with or without Katie—and explain everything then.

  Mylin would probably hate her forever for leaving Katie behind (Hannah was assuming the ever strong-willed Katie would hold her ground and stay), but it wasn’t as if she could kidnap her stepsister and throw her in the boat and then the car. Katie had to make her own (bad) decisions.

  Outside, thunder rumbled and rain battered the windows. Hannah tromped down the staircase and dropped her duffel on the wood floor with a loud thump. Jacob looked up from the Twister game and lost his balance. He fell sideways, toppling Katie and Alessandra like dominoes. Alessandra let out a peal of laughter.

  “Jacob!” Katie cried, laughing so hard tears squeezed from her eyes. “Foul!”

  “Hang on! Hang on! Time out.” Jacob jumped to his feet and made a T shape with his hands. “We’ll have a do-over.”

  He clapped Colin on the shoulder as he crossed the room to Hannah. Colin leaned against the back of the couch and sipped water from a plastic bottle. He had the Twister spinner in his other hand, and Hannah couldn’t help noticing how the sleeves of his T-shirt clung to his biceps. Ridiculous. Her brain was ridiculous.

  “H, listen. Please don’t go,” Jacob said under his breath, tugging Hannah aside. He ducked his chin and looked at her with those soulful green eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you my parents weren’t going to be here, but my mom had this business trip at the last minute and my dad decided to go along. They didn’t tell me until yesterday and I knew your dad wouldn’t let you come if he knew, and I really wanted to see you.”

  Hannah felt a pang in her chest, but wouldn’t let herself indulge it. She lifted her chin and crossed her arms. “You mean you really wanted to see Katie.”

  A light blush spread its way across Jacob’s cheeks, and Hannah’s heart broke a little bit. “No. Well, yes. I wanted to see her, too. But come on!” He reached out and awkwardly squeezed her elbow. “You’ve always wanted to come up to the lake.”

  Hannah blew out a sigh.

  “Hey, when your dad finds out … if your dad finds out, I will take one hundred percent of the blame.” Jacob shot her his most charming smile. “And you know your dad loves me.”

  It was all she could do not to laugh. “It’s not just my dad, Jacob,” she said as quietly as possible. She glanced back toward the others. Colin was still drinking from his water bottle, and Hannah wondered if he was listening in. Over on the Twister mat, Katie and Alessandra scrolled through feeds on Katie’s phone, leaning into each other like they were old friends. “I’m not … I’m …” Hannah paused.

  There was something on the tip of her tongue, of course—something she’d never have the guts to say. But Hannah was scared. Whether or not lake monsters were real; whether or not something had really tried to drag her under the water before … she still felt jittery in her own skin, and she didn’t like it.

  Finally, Hannah brushed the feeling off and stood tall. She didn’t need Jacob’s permission.

  “So, are you gonna take me back to town or do I have to swim for it?” she asked with a smirk.

  Jacob reached up and back, lacing his fingers together behind his head so that his perfect arms stuck out like wings. “I hate to have to tell you this, but there’s no way I can take you across the lake right now.”

  “Jacob—”

  “No, I’m serious. Look outside.”

  She did. Raindrops sluiced down the windowpanes, and beyond that there was nothing but gray. And the occasional flash of distant lightning.

  Right. Hannah groaned. The storm.

  “We could get killed out there in the middle of the lake,” Jacob said, dropping his arms to his sides. “Especially since the boat is basically made of tin. What do you think your dad would do to me if I took you out there and got you fried by lightning?” he added, stepping up next to her and giving her an annoyingly endearing, teasing smile.

  “What do you think my dad’s gonna do to you when he finds out you tricked me into coming on a weekend when your parents weren’t here?” she shot back, but there wasn’t much strength behind it.

  Jacob tilted his head winningly. “We’ll go in the morning?”

  “Fine,” Hannah muttered.

  So she was here for the night. That meant she’d have to share a room—share a bed—with Katie. She could only imagine what that would be like. At home, Hannah knew that Katie stayed up until two o’clock in the morning, switching between Instagram and Snapchat on her phone, texting, and watching YouTube videos. Hannah was sure that Katie would mock her to the ends of the earth if, heaven forbid, she actually tried to go to sleep. Sleep was probably only for dorks.

  “Great!” Jacob said, giving her a quick hug. “Why don’t you come play with us?”

  “Twister? I think I’ll pass.”

  Hannah knew she was being lame, but she felt too awkward to join in all the touchy-feely fun.

  “Your loss,” Jacob said with a shrug, and rejoined the group in the living room.

  Hannah crouched to unzip her bag and pulled out the book she was reading—the latest from her favorite mystery author. She plopped down on the couch with it.

  “Oh, hey. I saw that movie. It wasn’t bad,” Colin said, noticing the cover.

  “The movie?” Hannah said. “Please. The book is so much better.”

  “Have you even seen the movie?” he challenged her.

  Hannah shook her hair back and settled deeper into the comfy couch cushions. “I don’t have to. It’s just a given.”

  Colin gave her a half smile and was about to say something else when Jacob interjected.

  “All right, man. We’re starting over. Spin the spinner.”

  “Sir! Yes, sir,” Colin said. Then he rolled his eyes so only Hannah could see. Hannah smiled to herself. Colin hit the arrow, making it spin so fast she thought it might never stop.

  “Left foot green,” Colin said eventually.

  Hannah opened to her dog-eared page in the book, but couldn’t seem to concentrate. She kept reading the same sentence over and over again. Every time Colin shifted position, her heart would do a twirling dance as she wondered if he was about to talk to her again, but he never did. He just kept reading out Twister directives until, finally, Alessandra shrieked and fell over.

  “Oh!” Jacob cried. “That was some spectacular fail.”

  “Whatever.” Alessandra shoved herself up and dusted herself off. “This game is stupid anyway.”

  Releasing her spiral curls from the ponytail she’d tied them into, Alessandra strode over to the couch. She lifted Hannah’s feet up, sat down, and then put Hannah’s feet back down in her lap.

  Okay. That was weirdly familiar.

  Hannah curled her legs, pulling her feet back onto the cushion.

  “Sorry,” Alessandra said. “I just didn’t want to mess up your reading flow.” She narrowed her eyes in an attempt to see the cover of the book until Hannah finally held it up for her. “Oh, I loved that one! It’s so much better than the first two.”

  “You read the Dark Heart trilogy?” Hannah asked.

  “Hasn’t everyone?” Alessandra said.

  “Hannah hates the movie,” Colin put in, turning around to join the conversation. “Which makes you a total snob, by the way,” he added jokingly, throwing a look at Hannah.

  “Please! They should never have hired Taylor Tommaney to play Becca. She can’t do melancholy. It’s all wrong on her!” Hannah protested. “And don’t tell me I need to see the movie to understand, because you can tell from the frickin’ trailer that she’s a disaster.”

  “Girl has a point,” Alessandra said to Colin. “The casting was subpar.”

/>   “That’s just because you girls spend so much time obsessing over the books and imagining exactly what the characters look like that no actress in the world could possibly be good enough,” Colin said.

  Hannah was about to argue that he was wrong, but instead caught Alessandra’s eye, and she knew they were thinking the exact same thing.

  “Yeah, you’re totally right about that,” Hannah said sarcastically.

  “Score one for the male person,” Alessandra added.

  She and Hannah laughed, and Colin smiled sheepishly.

  “Okay, okay,” he said, holding up his hands.

  “Hello?” Katie called from the Twister mat, still frozen in her pose. “Are you gonna spin again anytime this decade? I’m about to pull a hammie over here.”

  “Right. Sorry about that.” Colin turned and hit the spinner. As he called out the next directive, Hannah reached for a bag of SunChips on the coffee table.

  “So, you finished the whole series?” she asked Alessandra.

  “I read all three books in one weekend,” Alessandra replied, grabbing a chip from the bag. “Why? You wanna know how it ends?”

  “No!” Hannah cried with a laugh. She crunched into a chip and went back to reading.

  She realized she was starting to feel comfortable. Maybe she was being silly before …

  Bam!

  A loud crash of thunder sounded and the whole house was lit by a flash of lightning. Hannah and Alessandra jumped, and Jacob and Katie tumbled over onto the mat.

  “Well,” Colin said flatly. “That was loud.”

  Everyone laughed, and Hannah, still smiling, slowly turned the page.

  Dear Future Me,

  Okay, I have to write the scary story down. Maybe if I write it down I’ll stop THINKING ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME!!! Which is what I really can’t stop doing. Like, I missed five questions on the history test today—just completely SKIPPED THEM because my mind wandered and didn’t come back until the bell rang.

  So, at the slumber party, P decided that we should tell scary stories because that is SO original, and she also decided that she should go first. And of course everyone just went along because it was her party. But whatever. Her story went like this: