Step Into the Waters of Lake Pearl

At 11:30 p.m., Rick Friar was finally ready to call it a night. Twelve hours at Miller Cab Company had left him exhausted, and all he wanted was to get home. By now, the building was almost empty. The engines had gone quiet, the drivers had gone home, and the dispatch radio sat silent on the counter.

Charlie, the night watchman, was the only other person still there. He sat behind the front desk under a dim overhead light, watching television. Rick opened his locker and pulled out his coat. When he swung the locker door shut, the metal slammed with a loud clang that echoed down the empty hallway.

“Damn,” he said to himself, shaking his head as he slipped on his coat.

As Rick made his way toward the lobby, he noticed that half the lights were out. The lobby looked different at night, darker and emptier than it did during the day. The bulb above Charlie’s desk flickered a few times. Rick slowed down for a second, then kept walking.

“I’m just tired,” he told himself, rubbing the back of his neck.

When he reached the desk, Rick gave Charlie a tired grin and held out his fist.

“I’m outta here, buddy.”

“Another long one, huh?” Charlie asked as he bumped fists with Rick.

“Yeah,” Rick replied with a tired sigh. “And with a wife, a mortgage, and two kids in college…” He shook his head and laughed quietly. “Man, there’s no end in sight.”

Charlie didn’t laugh. In fact, he didn’t say anything at all. He just sat there and watched him. Rick shifted his weight and waited for him to say something. When he didn’t, Rick walked over to the windows and pulled back the heavy curtains.

“Wow, it’s really coming down out there. Pitch-black too.”

The rain pounded against the glass, and the wind rattled the windows. Lightning flashed, and for a second, he could see the whole parking lot before it all went black again. Rick stood there for a minute, staring out into the dark. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t want to go out there. Rick sighed and turned back toward the desk.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, Chuck…”

He didn’t finish his sentence. The chair was empty. Rick glanced toward the hallway, expecting to see Charlie walking away, but there was no sign of him anywhere.

“Charlie?”

There was no answer. Rick had only been a few feet away. He never heard the chair move. He never heard the door, or a single footstep cross the lobby. He walked over to Charlie’s desk. The chair was still turning, slowly… by itself.

“Charlie?” Rick called again, looking toward the hallway.

Still nothing.

“Ohhh… kay,” he said, as he turned and headed straight for the door.

Rick pulled the hood of his jacket over his head and stepped outside. The rain hit him almost immediately. The wind pushed against him from every direction. He lowered his head and started across the parking lot toward his truck, holding tightly onto his jacket as he fought his way through the downpour. He had walked across that same parking lot a thousand times, but tonight it felt longer. The rain made it hard to see, and his truck looked a lot farther away than it should have. Rick picked up his pace.

“Just get to the truck,” he told himself.

The words had barely left his mouth when he heard something behind him. At first, he couldn’t tell what it was. It was hard to make out over the rain, almost like a moan carried on the wind. Rick slowed down and listened. When he didn’t hear anything else, he kept walking… Then it came again.

This time, there was no mistaking it. Something was moaning and scraping across the pavement behind him. It scraped, then stopped, then scraped again.

“Ohhhhh, God,” he said.

Rick’s walk suddenly became a slight jog. He didn’t turn around. Whatever was making that sound, he didn’t want to see it. His eyes stayed on the truck… The scraping continued.

It followed him across the lot. It never got any closer, but never fell behind either. Rick swallowed hard and glanced over his shoulder into the dark. He saw something move at the edge of the parking lot lights, low to the ground. But when he looked straight at it, nothing was there. Rick wasn’t jogging anymore. He was running.

“Come on… come on…”

His boots splashed through the water as he hurried toward the truck. The rain was coming down so hard now he could barely see. He was almost there when he stopped.

“What the hell…?”

Something was crouched on the hood of his truck.

Rick stared at it. His mind couldn’t turn it into anything that made sense. Every time the lightning flashed, he saw a little more of it. It was bent in ways a body should never bend, its arms and legs twisted, like someone had broken it and tried to put it back together.

Then its eyes found him. They glowed blood-red, and they were looking right at him. Rick couldn’t move.

Something thin and snake-like shifted across its face and along its body. Rick couldn’t tell whether it was part of the creature or something else moving over its skin. When the creature drew in a breath, the sound was wet and hollow, like air being forced through a chest that should have stopped working long ago. The sudden smell of rot and decay hit Rick so hard that he nearly gagged. He watched from a distance in the pouring rain, not able to take his eyes off it.

Slowly, Rick looked down at the truck and reached into his pocket for his keys. His wet fingers fumbled around before he finally found them. Then something near his shoe caught his attention. A jagged piece of metal lay partly submerged in the rainwater. Rick stared at it for a moment before bending down and grabbing it. The metal was cold in his hand, but having something to hold made him feel a little less helpless.

But when he looked back toward the truck, the hood was empty. Rick looked around, searching the parking lot. There was no movement anywhere, and the scraping sound was gone. He looked toward the building, then back at the truck.

“I’m just seeing things,” he said. He didn’t believe it.

Rick walked the rest of the way to the pickup and tossed the piece of metal into the truck bed. It hit with a sharp clang that made him jump. Then, he heard something as he reached for the driver’s door.

“Rick…”

His hand stopped on the handle. Rick turned his head, but there was no one behind him.

The rain kept falling.

“Rick…”

The voice came again, low and strained, as though whoever was speaking was having trouble forcing the words out. Rick shook his head.

“You know what happened…” said the voice.

Rick yanked the door open, climbed inside, and slammed it shut behind him. He locked it. Then he checked the lock again. He wiped the rain from his face and sat there trying to catch his breath.

“This isn’t real,” he said, his hands shaking.

He managed to put the key in the ignition and turn it. The old engine roared to life, and the headlights cut through the rain. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something in the windshield reflection. Rick jerked back. When he looked again, there was nothing there but rain. He threw the truck in gear and pulled out of the lot without looking back. But the words followed him.

You know what happened.

The thirteen-mile drive home was quiet. The rain had eased up some, and the roads were empty. Rick didn’t pass a single car as he drove his old 1979 Ford pickup through the night.

“Dammit,” he muttered, leaning closer to the windshield.

The wipers dragged across the glass, leaving streaks that made it even harder to see.

“I gotta replace these old wiper blades,” he said to himself.

He reached for the radio and turned the dial, hoping to find a station that might take his mind off what had happened. Instead, all he heard was static. He tried another frequency, but static was there too. Rick turned the radio off. But a few seconds later, it turned back on by itself with a loud pop, and Rick jumped.

Suddenly, the front right tire blew, and the truck jerked hard to the side. Rick held the wheel with both hands and fought to keep control as the pickup slid off the road toward the ditch.

“Steady now! Steady!”

The truck hit the ditch hard and then stopped abruptly. Rick’s head slammed into the steering wheel… everything went fuzzy. Then the sound of the rain returned. He slowly lifted his head, wincing at the pain in his forehead. Something warm dripped onto his leg. Rick touched his forehead, then looked at his fingers.

Blood.

He turned toward the rearview mirror. Lightning flashed across the sky, filling the cab with white light. Rick saw something sitting in the bed of his truck. He stared at the mirror, holding his breath. Another flash lit up the cab. It was still there.

Rick gripped the steering wheel as its red eyes stared back at him. He recognized it… the thing from the parking lot. A low, gurgling sound came from the truck bed. Rick turned his head a little, but he couldn’t make himself look. Then it spoke.

“You… you know who killed me…”

Rick’s heart was pounding. He didn’t want to turn around but kept staring at the mirror. When the lightning flashed again, the thing was leaning forward, its face almost pressed against the back window.

“YOU KNOW THE TRUTH!” it yelled.

“No!” Rick cried.

He grabbed the door handle and pulled to get out. But the door wouldn’t open.

“Help!” Rick shouted. “Somebody help me!”

He pulled again, then kicked the door with everything he had. He slammed his elbow into the window. The glass didn’t even crack.

“Come on! Open!”

Something cold touched his leg. Rick looked down and saw water coming through the vents. At first, it was just a trickle, but it quickly spread across the floor of the cab. Rick looked up again at the rearview mirror and watched in horror as the creature’s arm passed through the back window without breaking the glass. In its hand was the jagged piece of metal he had thrown into the truck bed. Rick screamed and kicked at the door again, but there was nowhere to go.

“You… know who killed me…”

The water kept rising. It was at his knees. Then his waist. Rick pulled at the door until his fingers bled, but it wouldn’t open. The freezing water climbed to his chest, then his neck. He pressed his face up against the roof of the cab and took one last breath before the water closed over him, and everything went black.

Rick fought to get free, but under the water he couldn’t see a thing. Then, through the dark water, two red eyes opened right in front of him. A cold hand took hold of his shoulders and pulled him in close. Rick tried to break loose, but it was too strong.

“Tell them…” The voice came from everywhere at once. “THE TRUTH!”

Rick twisted and struggled as the creature raised the jagged piece of metal above him. For a moment, it simply stared at him.