That time at Shadow Lake (Part 1)
The first time my brother and I made a deal, I ended up in the hospital. I remember being at the park when I was five years old, my legs swinging as I flippedinattentively through the pages of a book. My brother Rowan hummed beside me, his hazel eyesscheming. We were anxiously waiting for our parents to finish cooking lunch on a rustedcharcoal grill that, despite being free for public use, I had never seen anyone actually grill onbefore. As the younger sibling, I saw the world through my brother’s eyes. I was too little tohave gained my own opinions about the world, whereas Rowan, who was three years older than Iwas and constantly boasted that he was going into the second grade, while I wasn’t even inkindergarten yet, was full of opinions. So when he decided that we should be allowed to play onthe nearby playground because it was within watching distance of our parents, despite themexpressly forbidding it, I instantly agreed. I was willing to do anything to escape the boredom ofsitting around waiting for our meal, so once our parents’ backs were turned, we dashed for theplayground. The thrill of our departure was lost quickly on Rowan (who took one look at the sparseplayset and declared it was for babies), so he came up with another idea: stay hidden in a slideuntil our escapade was discovered, then reveal ourselves before our parents became frantic. Histheory was that they would be so relieved that we were safe and hadn’t wandered far that wewould be able to keep playing while continuing to push our boundaries. Sitting perfectly still andmaking sure our voices didn’t echo as we giggled over our shared disobedience in the enclosedfunnel wasn’t exactly what either of us had in mind when making our daring escape though, sowe had to raise the stakes again. ​“Let’s head into the woods.” I immediately perked up and stopped squirming in my spot. I had never gotten theopportunity to explore the woods before, and after being cramped next to my brother inside theslide for what felt like an eternity, I was starting to feel hot and desperate for fresh air. I glanceddown. The alluring sound of rustling leaves drifted towards me from the bottom of the slide,alongside the promise of wide-open spaces. At my enthusiastic nod, the two of us begantiptoeing carefully down the slide. Rowan exited first, then darted out of sight as fast as a fish. Iquickly stepped out of the funnel after him. Blinded by the bright sunlight, I followed mybrother’s urgent whispers, feeling relieved when I felt him take my hand and drag me behind alarge plastic climbing structure shaped like a mountain. Deciding for stealth instead of speed thistime around, we crept towards the nearest tree, then concocted a plan where Rowan would findthe best tree to hide behind next while I checked that our parents weren’t searching for us. Werepeated this process three times until we finally set foot on the well-trodden dirt path that ledinto the woods. Now that I had a taste of independence, I was eager to continue and discover more aboutthis small corner of the world in the safety of my brother’s company. Rowan didn’t just want toexplore, however, he wanted to compete. “I’ll race you to that cage!” he cried as he charged upthe incline to the first of many frisbee golf holes along the path. I ran after my brotherdeterminedly, but between the rocks and tree roots that littered the path I fell more than once,and felt tears brimming in my eyes as I reached him. “That wasn’t fair” I whimpered, wiping at my eyes and nose with my shirt sleeve. Rowanrolled his eyes, then started looking around for something else to do. “Let’s pick up rocks andsee who can throw them into this thing first!” I thought I may have a chance of winning thiscontest, so I agreed, and we split off in search of the perfect rocks for throwing. Rowan opted to use the biggest rock he could carry, while I had gone for a smaller, more round rock. I won thecontest, but admitted that Rowan was the stronger of us, which took the sting out of his defeat.After some tree-climbing we continued to trek along the dirt path, panting as it began to slopesharply upwards, trying to come up with what to do next. I heard my stomach growl and wasabout to complain that we should go back until Rowan’s gaze rested on a wide, sunny clearingahead and he dashed towards it. Our eyes were dazzled by the sun as we left the thick canopy of leaves, wandering fromdirt onto soft grass speckled here and there with dandelions. Using my hand as a visor, I saw thatwe had made it to the top of a wide, spacious hill with a small creek at the bottom, as well asanother frisbee golf hole. On either side of the hill small bushes, likely pushed out of the forestby the thick woods, provided shade at the very edges of the clearing, but sunlight bathed the restof the hill in light and splashed in puddles here and there among the encroaching foliage. Rowanand I stood in awe for a few moments, staring past the park’s borders to the roofs of houses in thesuburbs beyond. “I can see our house!” Rowan cried. I bounced eagerly and asked him to pickme up so that I could see as far as he could. He agreed with a laugh, flashing me a confident grinbefore hosting me up onto his shoulders and stretching onto his tiptoes. His legs trembled, and Iknew that he could only hold me up for a few moments, so I scanned the horizon quickly. Afterfinally proclaiming that I could see it too, I wriggled my legs around and hopped off. Rowan’slegs buckled and he fell back, panting, and I offered him a hand. “Are you okay?” “I’m fine-” Rowan replied. He reached for me, hesitating for a moment before balling hishand into a fist and giving me a thumbs up instead. He jumped up by himself, beaming, thenbegan meandering around the clearing, looking thoughtful. Finally, he gazed at memischievously. “I dare you to roll down the hill.” I paused in my examination of a tree for climbable branches, looking down the slope.“Do you think mom and dad are looking for us yet?” I queried as I considered his proposition. “One of them probably is,” Rowan shrugged. The park wasn’t big enough that we wereunable to see the shelter, but it was at such a distance that it was impossible to make out anythingdistinct. “Dad probably stayed to finish up lunch and Mom started looking for us. So you betterdo it before she gets here,” he pressed, bringing the conversation back to the dare. In response Ibegan edging my way to the topmost point of the hill and stared down with a nervous gulp. Itwasn’t dusty and root-filled like the dirt paths we had been on earlier, but it was still fairly rocky.I remained skeptical until Rowan wheedled “Come on Elijah- I’ll let you have all my extra friesfor lunch!” My stomach growled once again, and I quickly pressed myself flat to the ground andbegan to roll down the hill. A feeling of complete freedom overcame me as I slid smoothly down the damp grass.Wind whistled through my ears and I squealed with delight, propelling my body forward with ashove in an attempt to increase my speed. I could hear Rowan urging me on with loud cheers,and my mouth watered in anticipation of my prize. I opened my eyes and saw the shore of thecreek seconds before my foot caught on the jagged edge of a rock, sending me spiraling until Iwent face-first into the water with a crash. My head slammed into the shallow, rocky depths ofthe creek, and I blacked out. You can imagine, then, why even nine years later I was reluctant to accept another of mybrother’s deals. Rowan promised me a fun time, but I knew he only wanted me around to help liefor him. At the beginning of summer he had anticipated his girlfriend Hannah would break up with him once she and her family moved from our home state of Washington to New York. Theyhadn’t moved, and Rowan had begun dating his new coworker Laura in the meantime. He hadpromised to accompany each of them to their church youth camp, not realizing they were in thesame group. I was currently adamantly against the idea. My previous experiences with wateraside, our parents were only somewhat religious, and it had never affected me more than writingthe next number much faster than the others whenever three sixes came up in math class. “Rowan’s being ridiculous.” I grumbled to my friend Ruby as we settled onto a parkbench. I was panting after a game of basketball with our friends and watched eagerly as she tooktwo wrapped ice-cream bars out of a lunch box. I immediately swiped the freezer pack and heldit against the part of her stomach exposed by her navy and white striped crop-top. She squealedand swatted at the thing, sending it skidding out of my hand and across the court. I chuckled,then stood to get the ice-pack, raising my voice to be heard as I continued. “He’s an idiot fordating two girls in the same youth group in the first place, but he’s even dumber if he thinksneither of them will notice during an entire week when they’re all together.” Ruby had been glowering ever since I had told her about Rowan’s deal, but it had settledinto a more adorable pout as she tried to quell her obvious relief from the cool ice cream.“Rowan’s a dumbass for dating two girls period.” She amended tartly. “I say you come with usbut let his web of lies crumble around him.” I shrugged as I settled back next to my friend, feeling a bit guilty. “Maybe. But I don’tthink I will. You guys are going to Shadow Lake, and I don’t see the point in me going. I’drather not get in the way of you having fun in the water.” Ruby nudged me. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll find a new boyfriend who will whisk me off myfeet for a thrilling summer romance?” My shoulders hunched with embarrassment, and I stared atmy ice cream. Ruby and I had been friends ever since Kindergarten, when she’d chided a studentfor trying to touch my stitches after my accident in the creek. However, after I had asked her tothe end-of-the-year dance this past year, we had decided to start officially dating. We werewilling to take things as they came and not get too serious, but my mind froze as I considered thethought of losing her so quickly. “You wouldn’t do that.” The brunette smirked and pointed her ice cream cone at me animatedly, splatteringdroplets of melted chocolate on my face. “Try me.” I yelped, wiping the splatter before it dried and stuck to my face, and Ruby laughed.“Only kidding, you big softie.” She thumped her shoulder against mine fondly, and our sweatyarms stuck together for a moment. I blushed self-consciously. Despite being three years younger,I was four inches taller and nearly twenty pounds heavier than Rowan. “I know,” I smiled at herafter a few more licks. “Only I would be able to find someone else that quickly.” Ruby cackled atmy delayed retort, and we settled into comfortable silence as we finished our ice cream beforeparting ways. As I made my way home, I thought harder about the suggestion of going toShadow Lake. On one hand, it would seem like I was giving in to my brother and would surelylead to him pressuring me to keep up his charade, but on the other hand the thrill of goinganywhere new was tempting. I privately adored our comfortable, small Northwestern towndespite joining in others’ complaints, but after years of exploring the same woods, the spark ofchildish curiosity I’d always had when anticipating exploring somewhere new was enough tomake me ask my mother about it when she got home. ​Rowan and I’s mother Dawn had always worked to help our family pay the bills. Herpaychecks were what had allowed Rowan to pay for his raucous, rebuilt car alongside the moneyhe had already saved up by working at the same coffee and donut shop as she did. My brother’ssummer position had ended the previous week to give him more free time before his senior yearbegan, and I was unsurprised to find him absent from the house when I returned. I idly wonderedwhich of his girlfriends he was with as I started preparing dinner for when our mother arrived. Itwas something I had only done alone twice: once for my mother’s birthday when my dad wastoo sick to do it himself, and once when Rowan had been asked to make dinner (if “helping totake care of your family will allow you to feel a closer bond” counted as being asked), and hehad instead bribed me to do it with the promise of paying for a high-end shirt, slacks, and tie forthe dance this past spring. He had made good on his deal, as he always did, and I appreciatedfeeling included in the color-coordinated efforts of Ruby and her friends and their dates. “Eli? Rowan?” My mother called as she came in the door, inhaling deeply. “Roger?” Ichuckled. “Just me, mom.” She came around the corner and offered her best attempt at a hug fora son who was nearly a foot taller than her, and I breathed in the familiar, comforting smell ofbitter coffee and baked goods. “This looks great, Eli. What’s the occasion?” She narrowed hereyes in a knowing but playful expression as she began stirring the pot of spaghetti while Iattempted to cut some frozen garlic bread into pieces. “Er-” my knife thwacked harshly againstthe cutting board. I hesitated for only a moment before simply telling her the truth. “Actually, Iwas hoping to go to Shadow Lake with Rowan.” My mother slowly turned towards me; herexpression darkened for a moment before becoming a more worried frown. “I’m not sure, Eli.Rowan was able to go for a discounted price by offering to drive himself and some of the otherstudents.” I had thought about that, and Ruby had helped me come up with a good counterpoint. “There’s also a discount if you send two kids. O-or at least” I stammered, realizing I hadinterrupted her. “That’s what Ruby said.” My mother raised a curious eyebrow. “It’s still quite abit of money- “she trailed off, holding up a hand as I opened my mouth. “But it would be unfairto allow Rowan to go and not also let you. I know you don’t ask for much.” I cheered andhugged her again, more tightly this time. She reached and ruffled my hair, smiling. “Just promiseme you’ll be safe.” ​“Don’t worry mom,” Rowan said, coming up to join our hug by wrapping his armsaround the two of us as best as he could. “He’ll have me.” My mom yelped in surprise andsmacked Rowan lightly with the wooden spoon she had been using to stir. “Rowan JamesKingston! You are a sneak. You can finish stirring the pasta. I’m going to get changed out of myuniform.” Rowan rubbed his head and pouted but didn’t complain, taking up her positionopposite me, nudging me with his elbow as he passed. “Way to go, Eli! I didn’t think you’d beable to convince her so easily. I forgot Ruby was in the same group as Laura and Hannah.” Inodded, exhaling a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and returned to cutting. Despite myfear of the water, anticipation buzzed in my mind like an incessant honeybee. I knew that despitemy grievances with him, Rowan’s words were true. He’ll have me. ​The next two weeks seemed to pass by in a blur. Ruby was eager to make plans and filledevery minute we didn’t have a camp activity with shopping in the local stores, hiking the nearbytrails, and swimming in the lake. She had even made time for the ghost stories Rowan suggested.The three of us, joined by Hannah and one of Rowan’s other friends, squished into Rowan’s caron the day of our departure and began the five-hour drive to Shadow Lake. Once we arrived, we were swiftly herded into our gender-separated rooms to unpack. Rowan tossed his bag on one ofthe bottom bunks and flopped onto it with a yawn. “We should go see a movie tonight.” His ideapiqued my interest. I was eager to do something more interesting than giving myself a headachewhile staring out of a car window with my eyes narrowed against the sun. Thinking over Ruby’spacked schedule, however, I shook my head. “We have the opening service tonight after dinner.”I replied. Rowan threw a pillow at me. “Don’t be like that! We can sneak out easily. It’s not likethere’ll be guards at the doors.” I tossed the deflated pillow back at my brother. “Maybe, but I’m not getting kicked out ofcamp on the first night because you had a stupid idea.” “It’s not stupid!” Rowan glared at me, then dramatically brought a hand to his forehead.“Laura and I wanted to spend some alone time together after being separated all day. I was justinviting you out of the goodness of my heart,” He taunted. I snorted. “Right. Goodness. That’sthe word I think of when I think about going off alone with one of your girlfriends after beingwith the other one all day.” Rowan rolled his eyes. “Are you coming or not?” I shrugged. “Iguess.” I wasn’t particularly interested in the opening ceremony, and I had a feeling Rubywouldn’t be hard to convince. I was right; she was similar to Rowan in that way. I only had todare her to break the rules and she immediately accepted the challenge. The four of us snuck outone at a time as the lights went down in the main building where camp activities were held. Thestudents began flocking to the stage as a guitar began blaring worship hymns alongside drumsthat pounded so loudly my heartbeat felt as if it had synchronized with the rhythm. Rowan leftfirst to get the car. I had decided to go last, so that I could slowly work up the courage to sneakaway. Ruby squeezed my hand and winked before dashing off next, then I saw Laura creep alongthe shadows at the edges of the building. My mind was racing too much for me to come up with a plan, and I was a little hard to miss, so I decided to simply walk out the front door. So long as Iwas the only one noticed, I could easily say I just hadn’t been feeling good (which wasn’t a liewith the headache pounding its way into my skull with every drumbeat). I thought that I would have to make my way to our rental house, but Rowan had alreadypulled up beside the makeshift building once I exited. Laura whooped once I was buckled, and Icouldn’t resist a small grin. I had never been much of a rule-breaker, but the escape had sent athrill through me, and I was glad I had agreed to Rowan’s plan. I idly watched the large, cape-cod style homes pass by in my mirror, fighting back a yawn as my adrenaline ebbed. Rubyleaned against my shoulder and I rested a hand on her leg as we traveled. My eyes drifted shutuntil suddenly I felt the seat give out from underneath me. I tried to shout, but the wind took thebreath from my lungs as I watched myself phase through the car and shoot out the other sidebefore coming to a crashing halt in a ditch. Rowan landed hard on the opposite side of the road,and I called out to him, managing to get up and lurch to the other side of the road. “Rowan! Areyou okay?!” “Yeah,” I heard Rowan’s voice croak. “M’fine. What the hell was that?” I offered him ahand and we looked farther down the road. Laura had managed to use the emergency brake toslow the car safely to a halt. She and Ruby were already scrambling out of the car towards us,and I was relieved that they looked to be unharmed. Rowan and I took a few steps to meet them,but again found that we were unable to pass through an invisible barrier. Confused, I lookedaround the area, and my gaze found the town limit sign only steps away. We were trapped inside the town. Ruby raced over to me, crossing the invisible boundary with ease, and hugged me tightly.“What was that? Are you guys okay?” She looked me over and I followed her securitizing gaze.Besides being caked in leaf-litter and dirt, I only felt sore. “I’m not sure.” I murmured, looking atthe town limit sign once again. “But I don’t think we can leave the town.” ​“What?” Rowan chimed in, unwrapping his arm from around Laura as she pressed intohis side. He kissed her head and gently told her to get the car, which was still across the townline. His face turned serious once she was out of earshot, his voice raised in confusion. “How isthat possible? I’ve never even heard of this town. What’s the difference between us and you?” hegestured to Ruby. I shrugged, and the oppressive, hot air exaggerated the silence. “Let’s tryasking around tomorrow,” Ruby suggested. “Someone has to know what this is about.” I was lesscertain but was too bewildered to do anything but nod my head again. We clambered into the caronce Laura cautiously pulled up beside us. She drove us back to our rental home, pepperingRowan with questions until she huffed and went silent at his evasive answers. Nearly every lightwas on in the house as we drove up, and acoustic hymns drifted out of the main floor windows,likely a continuation of the earlier worship. Rowan and I hurriedly bid the girls goodnight beforesneaking our way up to our room. I shuffled my way into the shower first and washed myselfuntil Rowan pounded on the door and demanded I let him have a turn. As I sprawled onto the topbunk, the cheap box spring creaking with every movement, I sighed. Even without the bustlingof other teens around me, I was confident that I wouldn’t get any sleep that night. As I puzzledover our situation, I came to another nerve-wracking question. ​What will happen to us when everyone leaves camp? The next morning, after a few short bursts of sleep, I was watching the sun rise over thelake from our window when I heard a knock on the door. I opened it to see Hannah. She wasclearly ready for the day, already dressed in a sleeveless white button-up shirt and jean shorts,her blonde curls tidy. She was rapidly shifting a steaming cup of coffee between her hands,which I presumed was for Rowan. The familiar tart smell invigorated me enough to start astrained conversation. “Nice morning out.” ​Hannah nodded enthusiastically. “I was hoping to go to the lake to do devotions withRowan.” She peered over my shoulder. “He’s not up yet? You guys left the service early and Ididn’t see you for the rest of the evening.” I shook my head, deciding not to mention ourexploits. “I’m sure he’ll want to join you, though,” I added before her disappointed expressioncould stick. She smiled. “Thank you, Elijah. See you at morning service!” She turned to let meout of the doorway, and I hurried downstairs, hoping there was more coffee and creamer. The windows hadn’t been closed the previous night, and everything felt damp as I satmyself at one of the folding tables where boxes of cereal, muffins, and fruit were spread out. Iwas munching on a blueberry muffin when Ruby shambled downstairs, her eyelids drooping.She looked as tired as I felt and let out a sleepy groan as she dragged a chair in front of me andplaced her head on my chest. I smiled. “Morning, sunshine.” Ruby grunted, and I shiftedawkwardly to reach for an apple and handed it to her, rubbing her back with one hand and eatinga muffin with the other until I reluctantly got up to pour us two cups of coffee. Once Ruby had perked up, she was eager to tell me about what she had discovered beforeshe went to sleep. “There are a few stores that open before our nine o’clock service, but I think we should start by going to Callaghan’s Candy.” I raised an eyebrow and didn’t even need tospeak before she stuck out her tongue. “They do have some of the best saltwater taffy by thelake, but also Elise Callaghan was one of the first people to write about not being able to leave.Just a little blurb to check the spooky box for the Halloween edition of their monthly newsletter.She claimed that no one in the entire town could get out. And get this- she disappeared a yearlater.” I ruffled her hair. “I’m sorry I doubted you. That sounds like a good idea. Nice work.”Ruby beamed, taking a sip of her overly doctored coffee before leaving to join a few of herfriends for devotions, promising she would meet me at the candy store in an hour. With both Ruby and Rowan busy, I decided to make my way to one of the nearby trails. Ihoped that a walk through the woods would be comforting in its familiarity and wanted to mapout the exact limits of where Rowan and I could go. Laura was nestled on a soft chair in the mainliving room off the kitchen, slowly spinning as she stared into a soggy bowl of cereal. Shenoticed me heading for the front door and planted her combat boots on the ground with a suddenthump. I froze, however her voice was curious as she asked, “Where are you off to, Eli?” I relaxed and gestured to the door. “I was thinking of doing some hiking. Do you want tocome with me?” I felt bad that Rowan hadn’t answered any of her questions yesterday and washoping to explain things to her as best as I could. “Sure. It’s too nice of a day to be stuck inhere.” She gulped down the last of her cereal, then led the way out the door. “I’ve been cominghere since freshman year, and there’s this really nice trail with a flower garden at the end on thefar side of the lake. We might make it to the best benches before there’s a crowd. Come on!” Iscrambled after the red head, her boots sounding like a marching army as her footsteps echoedalong the empty street. The town was small, so it wasn’t long before we slowed onto a pebblytrail beside the lake and started tracing the edge of the water. Having avoided water since I was a child, I realized I had taken for granted the term ‘lake.’ The body of water before me wasmassive. I could see the opposite shore, but it was so far away that I realized Laura must havebeen exaggerating when she said the trail was all the way on the other side. She led the wayalong the lakeside before turning sharply onto a new, dirt path; a worn wooden sign nearbylabeled it as Rose trail. I followed her inside, my shoulders relaxing as the sound of lappingwaves was replaced by the crunching of leaves. “So, do you have any idea what happened last night?” Laura asked once the trail widenedenough that we could walk next to each other. “Not really,” I shrugged. “Ruby was telling meabout this rumor where the people born in this town can never leave. I wouldn’t have believed it,but…” I trailed off. I didn’t think the events of the previous night needed repeating, and saying itout loud would make the entire situation even more real. “We weren’t born here,” I added after amoment, trying to fill the silence as Laura stared at me without reply. “Or at least if we were, ourparents lied about it.” I gestured at the trail sheepishly. “I was actually hoping to figure out howfar we could go.” “If I remember right, this trail leads to a bike path that goes all the way to the next town,”Laura informed me. “But that’s miles away. The town itself is small, but there are a lot of nearbyvacation houses, so it goes on for a while.” I sighed in disappointment, but it was tempered as weemerged into a clearing. The chirping of birds I could hear in the distance as we hiked seemed to suddenly growlouder. An indignant blue jay spotted Laura and I and took to the sky, alerting more well hiddenbirds who raced for the trees with frantic flaps of their wings. There were four flower bedsspaced evenly at the edges of the clearing, and each one had a bench beside it. Laura strode intently towards the far-left bench, and the shadowed expression she wore,reminding me so much of my mother, compelled me to sit beside her. “What is it?” I demandedin a sharper tone than I intended. I realized guiltily that I was growing more resentful that mymother had known something about this place yet hadn’t told us. “Sorry,” I said quickly, hopingI hadn’t upset her. She glanced at me coolly, then shrugged. “I met this girl here last summerfrom another youth group. We were both on our schools’ volleyball teams, so we had a lot incommon. She gave me her number and I tried texting her a few times.” She looked up at the palesky and smiled wryly. “I remember being so pissed that she wouldn’t respond to me. I ended uplooking for her on social media just to call her an entitled bitch and found out the reason shehadn’t replied was because she had disappeared. She hadn’t even made it home.” She pointed toa pristine white tulip in the neat flower bed beside us, and I noticed for the first time that eachone had a small plaque set into the ground in front of it. The one Laura was pointing to readLeah Green. “I hadn’t even thought about it while I was here. I just assumed she was busy withher group’s activities. Everyone was.” Her admission baffled me. This was the first time I hadheard of someone going missing who didn’t originally live in Shadow Lake. Confusion turned toshock as I scanned the other names and recognized one. Kingston. There was no first name, and based on the plaque’s weathering I assumed this person hadbeen dead for a long time. Someone related to Rowan and me. ​As soon as I pointed the headstone out to Laura, she and I hustled back down the trail,splitting off as I scrambled to meet with Ruby on time and she went to find Rowan. I was eagerto relay this new information to my girlfriend, even if it only added to the mystery of the curse. “That’s going to make this harder,” Ruby observed as walked down Main Street, whichhad grown more active in the past hour as other students rushed to swim or look at the localstores before the day began. “We’ll have to find a way for you and Rowan to leave before theend of camp, and we’ll have to make sure that no one disappears while we’re here.” I agreed,and she went on. “For now, let’s focus on the people who have disappeared. Elise is probablylinked to all of this, but there’s only one way to find out.” She flounced the door of Callaghan’sCandy open to emphasize her point. I smiled and followed her inside, ducking to avoid thetinkling bell that announced our arrival. Ruby was immediately distracted by a floor-to-ceiling display of colorful saltwater taffy.I left her to search and meandered towards the front counter, eyeing the enticing smellingchocolates. A man around my mothers age, whose name tag labeled him as David, stood behindthe register, smiling warmly. “Hello sir,” he greeted me in a tired tone that didn’t match hisexpression. “How can I help you today? Is there something you need help getting down?” Therewas an awkward pause as he realized his question didn’t make sense. I shook my head. “No.” Iweighed immediately telling him the truth or waiting for Ruby, deciding on the former as theman’s expression fell suspiciously. I began diving into the events of the previous night. “Mygirlfriend found an article written by Elise Callaghan about the same thing. D-did you knowher?” I finished, remembering that she had disappeared not long after she had written the article.The man silently glared between Ruby and I, noted that the brunette was enthusiastically filling atwo-pound bag to the brim with taffy, then turned back to me. “Elise was my sister.” I exhaled gratefully as he continued, but his tone betrayed annoyance. “You alreadyknow she was telling the truth. What else do you want?” I considered that. He had a point thatwe had already experienced the curse first-hand. “How did Elise disappear?” I mumbledindecisively, worried that if I asked the wrong thing the man would shut down. We didn’t havemuch information about the disappearances, but I assumed the town had a reason for thinkingthey were connected. “I was actually with her,” David replied quietly. “Elise wanted to go outfor a swim in the middle of the night, and I didn’t want her to go alone. We made our way to thelake, and as I ran towards one of the docks to jump in, I watched her walk in at the shoreline. Butas soon as she got in the water, she” his breath hitched. “She vanished.” “Do you know if that happened to the others?” I jumped as I noticed Ruby beside me forthe first time. The man nodded. “Only two people had gone missing before Elise, but theirfamilies said the same: they wanted to go to the lake, and then vanished. There were only threemen to go missing in seventeen years. Two of them were my friends from high-school, and theother was the old pastor of the church in town.” He shifted uncomfortably. “The camp wasfounded about five years ago, though, and ever since then no one from town has gone missing.” My eyes widened in indignation. “Then someone figured why it was happening, if peoplefrom the town stopped disappearing? But why would they put innocent kids in danger?!” “Have police searched the lake for bodies?” Ruby pressed eagerly. “Of course.” Davidsnapped. “But there’s never any sign of them.” He seemed to deflate after this, then shrugged.“Now they don’t even bother searching when someone disappears on the 20th of July.” Ruby’seyes gleamed. She plopped her full bag of taffy on the counter, paid, then dashed out the door. Ihurriedly thanked the man and followed after her. Once I was outside, I turned in the opposite direction of where she was headed. “I’m going to go get Rowan,” I called to Ruby. “Laura wentlooking for him, but I think he and Hannah are still at the lake doing devotions.” “What?!” Ruby replied incredulously, racing to my side. “Why didn’t you tell me thatearlier?” I frowned, perplexed. “Why does it matter?” “Because we might miss seeing Rowan’s relationships come crashing down in real-time!” She exclaimed, already dashing past me. “Hurry up! Maybe we can watch Laura andHannah throw him into the lake.” Her deduction startled me into motion. As much as I dislikedRowan’s two-timing, I felt a bit guilty for not preventing Laura from finding him and Hannahtogether. “Laura’s going to be upset,” I mumbled, as Ruby and I returned to the lakeside. “She’llfeel better in the end, knowing the truth,” Ruby reasoned. “Wouldn’t you want to know if I wasdating someone else without telling you? Even if we were happy?” I agreed that I would, and wecontinued jogging in silence until Ruby suddenly stopped. I caught up to her a few momentslater, gasping. “What is it?” I rasped. Ruby kneeled on the ground and picked up a worn, heart-shaped charm. The letter R was emblazoned on one side. “Look! It’s so pretty!” She exclaimed.“And it has my initial on it. It must be destiny.” I chuckled. “Maybe. Good eye,” I praised her,and Ruby tucked the charm into her pocket before pelting off again. But we were too late. Hannah was a blur in the distance by the time we arrived at the long bridge where she andRowan had been, in the opposite direction from Rose Trail. The partially rotted planks lead outinto the lake, and a small gazebo stood at the end. Laura was screaming at Rowan at the entranceof the gazebo, a flurry of swears that had no real meaning at this point. Rowan had his backturned to the red head, staring dejectedly out at the waves, unable to leave. Ruby went to intercept Laura, and once she had steered her away I was able to stand atRowan’s side. “I’m sorry,” I said, apologizing both for what had just occurred and the small partI had played, though I didn’t explain that to him. Rowan was good at heart, I knew. He hadcertainly gotten over his head and made assumptions about the status of his relationships that Iwouldn’t have made, but I knew he cared for both girls and hadn’t meant to hurt them. Rowanshrugged. “It’s my own damn fault. At least it’s over now.” I nodded. “I think it’s for the best.You won’t make the same mistake again.” He nodded with a snort of contempt at theobviousness of that remark. I smiled, patting his shoulder before turning around. “Come on,before this rickety bridge makes me sick.” The day dragged on, filled mostly with sanctioned camp activities. We were separatedinto groups of four by last name, so Rowan and I were in the same group. He pulled me aside aswe made our way to the gym, where he was going to play in the first round of a basketballtournament. Eager to distract himself from what had happened earlier, he pressed me for whatRuby and I had discovered about the curse. Once I explained everything, however, he appearedas bewildered as was. “So, we’re probably the kids of someone from the town. It has to be mom,don’t you think?” I asked. The weight of knowing our mother was lying to us for some reasonkept me from saying more. “We’ve never met mom’s parents,” Rowan agreed. “But why wouldshe send us here if she knew we would be cursed?” I scuffed the pebble strewn earth. “Do you think she doesn’t want us anymore?” Rowanfrowned. “Not a chance. Don’t be an idiot, Elijah.” I flinched. Like my mother, Rowan onlycalled me Elijah when he was upset. I looked up to see doubt in his gaze, and knew he was asworried as I was that we had been forcefully cut out of our parents’ lives. We stared at each other for a long moment, then Rowan looked away. “She probably just didn’t know,” he grumbled. Inudged his foot lightly with my own. “Probably.” Without another word my brother turned towards the gym, the promise of competitiontoo much for him to ignore. I hoped that it would help him get his mind off our troubles. I on theother hand turned towards our house. I hoped a nap would put me in a better mood. I entered our rental house, the blasting air conditioning a welcome relief after the stiflingheat outside. The camp only provided us with dinner, so I made myself a sandwich and sprawledonto one of the old leather couches, cracks in the exterior poking into my skin. I took my phoneout of my pocket to scroll through social media, but redirected my swipe to the photos appinstead after staring at a picture of Ruby and I that I’d set as my background. I searched for apicture of my family, subconsciously hoping to find the reason my mother had allowed us tocome here behind her stagnant eyes. Instead I was comforted by pictures of Rowan and Ithroughout the years: standing mortified together as my mother took our picture for the first dayof school, Rowan posing proudly in a varsity baseball uniform his freshman year, while Isheepishly held up my first award for a creative writing contest. Lulled by memories, I wanderedupstairs and settled into a dreamless sleep. I woke up a few hours later to the sound of polite but insistent rapping on the door. Thesound was familiar; it was Hannah again. I opened the door after checking for my brother,rubbing my eyes groggily. “Rowan’s not here-“ I said instinctively, too bleary from sleep toremember that Hannah wouldn’t want to see him. But Hannah hadn’t heard me. “Have you seenRuby?” She asked anxiously. “She didn’t come back for dinner.” Adrenaline woke me up in an instant. “No. I’ve been asleep for-“ I glanced outside and cursed. The sun was a scarlet lineagainst the horizon.“A while.” Hannah gave me a reassuring smile that didn’t reach her eyes.“That’s alright. She was part of my group, but she left us after the last activity-” “-She said she was going for a swim.” Credit: BexLapis Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.