The lake house at the end of the city was a family property.Year after year,we would do our summer visits and I dont remember why but we stopped.Perhaps,I was too young to remember. After the rest of my family moved away,I was the only one left in the city.Shoved towards that responsibility,I went to my old home to pack up everything that was left as it was decided that it would be sold.I was looking through the closets for any remaining junk that might be useful when I found a box of pictures,one of which was a picture of the lake house.That’s when I remembered it.It was a post card with nothing more than a smiley face and a simple flower taped to it.I took the picture as it striked a particular fondness and signed the last few papers for the job to be done.
That night I had a dream that I was near the back of the lake house playing with a few stray twigs when suddenly someone in the sticks hummed my name in a melody and called me towards it.An old woman with wrinkled skin and a bright smile stood by my side looking at me with utmost concern,I ran closer to the woods when I woke up in a pool of sweat to see that picture laying by my bedside.Throughout the day,I couldn’t stop thinking about that women and the lake house conveniently forgetting about the woods.I had to know what happened.I drove to the lake house thanking the post card for the address with my mind set.
Upon arriving after a few misleads,gushes of the forgotten past returned.Glimpses of happy faces,blood stained clothes and salty fingers.The door was an easy pick and the house was kept safe from the outside world covered in canopies and thick bushes.The house was creaky and stepping in,a rancid smell filled the air.The fireplace was rusty with soot and loneliness ringed everywhere.I walked upstairs to find a room with a bed and a working toilet and an urge inside me to spend the night here.I had a quick bite and went to bed.I woke up around 2 in the morning to hear my name being sung and a woman stood by the end of the bed in red motionless.I was paralysed in fear with bullets of sweat forming on my temple when she raised a candle to her face to reveal a mangled horrible sight and walked slowly towards me.She bent her kness and whispered my name over and over into my ears and put me to sleep.I woke up the next day with a mind weak and fragile.I didnt know what happened and if it even was true.I can’t even begin to describe the state of my mind.I grabbed my keys and went to the nearest place with any sign of life.I spotted a tiny stall selling tea with an old man swatting away at the only things that seemed to be attracted to that place.He looked at me in surprise and I asked him if he knew anything about the lake house nearby.He squinted to observe my face and rejected my question.I sat opposite to his place and told him that I wouldn’t be moving until he coughed up.
‘I know who you are kid.Your family owned that cursed place. I didnt think any of you would show up after what happened ‘
My curiosity got the best of me even though I wanted to run the heck away from that place and town.’ It’s said that a monster killed a child by that lake singing a song for it and any child who enters that forest would have the same fate. Nobody believed it completely but no one bought any property there either. Yours did and twenty years ago , an old women there died by the woods. I dont know how true that creature is but I do know that there are a number of things we humans don’t understand. ‘ I got into my car , thanked him for his help and drove back home. I stopped half way for gas. I took out my wallet to pay and found a picture of that old woman and me. She was my grandmother. She lost her life to save mine and she sung a lullaby for me last night. I folded the picture popped a piece of candy and took it back home and smiled gratefully for knowing and not knowing what I do.