No… No, no, no… God… Whoever is up there… Whatever is happening, please, just… whoever and whatever it takes… Someone needs to hear me out… Someone… Anyone… Please, just… Just listen! Hear me out! I’m begging you! You have to!… Someone… Someone needs to listen. I don’t know who… I don’t care who… it’s just… Please… Know that… That there’s something out there…
I guess… I guess if someone is going to be listening to me, I better explain myself. I won’t be believed otherwise… My name is… Well, let’s just call me Sam. Sam Johnson. I… I don’t know if it’s out there and it’s able to read… but I can tell you right now that I’m… I’m not ready to find out. I don’t… I don’t know if I even should give a name… Not when everyone will probably investigate it or put me in a cell…
I was just a kid for hire to get some work done. A lifeguard at the edge of a pretty open lake… not that it needed a lifeguard. No one was really there. It was basically a way to get paid and not do work. My favorite kind of job. Able to sit on the beach and enjoy myself. The boss gave me a list of rules. I don’t show anyone about it. I don’t tell anyone about it… I don’t stay over night, I don’t swim in the lake, and I don’t leave litter behind. Easy enough. Getting paid 25 an hour just to sit there was my kind of dream.
And I have to say, it was wonderful being there. Clear skies everyday, with the perfect temperature. I didn’t even need to get out of the sun most days just because I was so comfortable. I made sure to lather on as much sunscreen as I could. I also had an umbrella… which was pretty good. It was so comfortable that I often took naps. Even better, the locals there would feed me. First day I got there, I brought a pretty dull lunch. With no one around, I decided to close my eyes because I had gamed so much the night before. You can imagine my amazement when a rack of ribs and some corn showed up next to my seat. Delicious… I was tempted to take another nap to see if a drink would appear… and it did. The coolest cola before it melts… I had a blast.
I loved it there so much that I had accidentally started to neglect some house chores. Cleaning the rooms, getting some food… I hated going back home. I wanted to keep going to work… If it wasn’t for a rule, then I would have absolutely stayed there at night. I had actually started to wander around the beach. I was wondering if anyone would even know if I followed the rules or not. I mean, this place, I can see why the boss wanted it kept hidden. It’s beautiful, too good for just anyone… Especially since I might have been tempted to go into the lake once or twice… but I’m clearly being watched if I’m being fed. So, as much as I didn’t want to, I stayed out of the water.
A week easily flew by. Then two. Then a month. I ate to my heart’s content… and after about two months, I started noticing that my shorts weren’t fitting me as well as before. I hated that I had to get sweatpants just to walk to the beach… but being there made it all worth it.
I kept up the routine. Eating to my stomach’s delight, drinking all the delicious soda… Just… anything I could imagine, I could have. Even better, when I went to sleep in my rather uncomfortable shorts, I woke up with some new lifeguard pants. The right size for me. And it helped me feel better so I didn’t need to squeeze my stomach. I didn’t want to. I just enjoyed my food.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end… Well, I guess fortunately for my case. Yesterday, I went to my job. Everything was normal. I was happy. Then my midday nap happened and I decided to doze off.
When I woke up, everything felt off. The sun felt freezing. Looking around revealed that it was snowing, with dark clouds in the sky. I was shivering violently… and I didn’t understand why.
“Hello?” I call out. I know that I followed the rules. That I didn’t tell anyone about this beach or anything… Maybe someone followed me.
I groan as I force my tired body to stand up. I look around for any sign of something. I thought that whatever was happening was a pretty bad joke… But I can’t help but feel like there was this… This deep pit in my gut that what was happening was real. It’s still a little fuzzy. Apparently, hypothermia can do that to a person… but all I remember is a hand reaching out through the surface of an icy lake.
I remember stumbling over to hand. My feet were slipping because I was still trying to stay upright… I just kept going. Eventually, I managed to wake up enough that I remember grabbing onto the hand.
My memory clears as I wipe away some snow on the surface. I remember holding the rather delicate hand and pulling on it as hard as I could… The hand came free. Only the hand.
I shrieked in fear as I tried to find the rest of the body. There was nothing in the water… and the arm looked like it was cleanly sliced off. I could see fish swimming underneath the ice, so it couldn’t be frozen there. I wanted to dive into the water. My fingernails started bleeding when I noticed that some snow around me was an odd pink. I didn’t think that snow was like that… so I looked up.
I saw the sun peak out again… but blood red. It wasn’t as warm or inviting as before… Then a slit appears in the center. I can remember that my throat tightened before I realize what the slit was… The body that was missing the limb. I think that it’s female based on the delicate hand I’m holding, but it’s hard to tell.
The body was robbed of all warmth. She was blue… And she was mummified. Her body floated up to the sun… I saw some black lines fall down… And then it closed around her. When it opened again, I spotted a pair of dark red circles above where that body disappeared… And then I realize that the mysterious visitor was just eaten. Then the creature turned towards me.
I think… No, I know that it was going to eat me next. I had to leave… I had to run. I wanted to run. I just managed to get to the edge of the lake when something grabbed onto me. My right arm, to be specific.
I twist around to see some kind of… Of tentacle so thin that it barely reflects the light there. It’s tightly around my hand… The hand that is holding onto the other person’s hand. Then it tightens it’s grip… and then there’s just searing pain.
I don’t really remember what happened after that. I just… ran. I ran and ran and ran… I ran until I was back home. I barely remember that there was police involved, and an ambulance… They wanted to know what managed to take my hand away and if I knew about the other missing people. I think it was stated that five others were hurt…
I didn’t dare say anything to them… even now, typing is hard and I can barely stand to recall everything without shaking… I can’t even go out in the sun. My therapist says that I should type it out… I still remember the rule of not sharing the beach’s story. I really hope that me typing this out on a computer will not make a consequence… Not that it particularly matters.
Oh god… The rules… They apply even now. I turned around… and there’s a mummified hand… My hand on my bed…