Thriller Short Story – The Ice Lake
Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com
The journey was long and extremely tiresome, my legs and back were stiff and aching from sitting in the same squashed up position amongst our belongings for three hours. I was glad we were finally at our final destination although I made no attempt to show it. I stepped out to see a vast grey lake in front of me, the water was silently still and even though the birds were swooping eagerly to catch the fish, they did not spoil the perfect mirror reflection that was cast by the trees that stood awesomely tall and green against the autumn sky line.
There standing rickety and to the left of the lake was our modest weathered new home. its windows had a rustic tattered well warn on the edge of falling out look, the outer walls looked like they needed several fresh coats of white paint, but at that moment all I longed for was take my belongings in and close the door behind me. I had not looked forward to the move, if anything I had caused many a quarrel and sleepless night between my family. I knew that when we moved I would be leaving my school and friends behind. The idea of being total alone, away from my friends was daunting, having to try and make new friends with people I did not know, or whether I would like here or get on with anyone was an enormous stress weighing down on me.
We had moving here to be closer to my mum’s new job, but it meant moving in to the middle of nowhere or at least it felt like it. After the first month of settling in the weather had turned for the worst, gale force winds that howled ghostly through the trees had battered wildly at our door and windows and had even threatened to take the roof off at one point, we had torrents of rain lashing and lashing fiercely at the windows almost causing the lake to burst its bank and then eventually slow falling fluffy snow. The snow had lain thick and the lake had frozen over.
With the snow there, there was nothing much to do, so after much repetitive finger tapping, sighing and pulling silly faces at myself I decided to play hockey on the ice, It was a favourite sport of mine at the old school. Many a time I had returned home hours late after school to find my mom beside herself with worry and the scolding I received for my lateness was well deserved I know that know. After a few goes on the lake I got more adventurous and ventured further out on the ice, I knocked the puck further and further out before falling and tripping on the ice, for a moment I was stunned. I picked myself up and sat for a minute and laughed at myself, then from beneath me came a loud tapping noise, again and again it came like something trying to get out.
I got on to my knees looked down and to my horror a boys frightened face was staring back, he was knocking hard and franticly on the ice, trying to get out, bang, bang, bang he went on the ice, within a few seconds I was on my feet and running across the ice, my mind filled with the horror I had seen. How did he get there? How? How? How? I did not care how many times I fell I just had to get help.
Once I had told my frantic breathless story, it was greeted with shrills of laughter from my family. ”no one could be out there in the lake, it’s been frozen for days and you were way out on the ice. Are you sure you did not hit your head or something when you fell”.
Thinking it over later on in bed that night, I thought that maybe I had just imagined it, had my tumble caused me to hallucinate, I carried on thinking about it until I fell asleep. Bang, bang went one of the doors in the house, my eyes flew open and my mind began to think again about the boy in the lake. Slowly it began to get light out, by breakfast I was determined to go back out again .I downed some orange juice and 2 boiled eggs before heading back well rapped and armed with a heavy tree branch that i had found to break the ice. I had come to the conclusion that should I crack the ice and make an opening then the boy would be able to get out.
Over the next 5 days I returned to the lake more and more determined, each day I took a new item to break the ice , each day a bigger dint was made in the ice and each night I lay awake worrying about the poor boy in the lake although I had not seen him since that day. Eventually on the 6th day I hit the ice only this time it gave beneath my feet and I fell in to the icy cold water. The cold seared through my bones making it hard for me to catch my breath, within seconds I slipped beneath the surface but found myself stuck, trapped under a sheet of solid ice, I banged and banged on the ice and banged again. Franticly I banged then to my horror my own face starred back from above, then as the icy water filled my lungs I knew that the poor boy in the lake was me. Slowly I began to sink away from the surface, smaller and smaller the patch of light began to get until darkness was all that was left…………
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