Chereads / Random Horror Stories - 500 / Chapter 193 - Chapter 193

Chapter 193 - Chapter 193

The old man had warned them. He had told them everything. The lake was cursed. People disappeared, sometimes after hours, sometimes after days, sometimes never at all. But the young people, with their careless disregard for the old stories, thought him senile. They laughed at him, like they always did.

Now, they were gone.

Kaitlin had been the first to dive in. She had always been the fearless one, the one who dared to go where others didn't. "It's just a lake," she had said, her voice full of cocky arrogance, dismissing the warnings of her friends and the old man who had stood at the edge of the water.

The others, a group of friends from a nearby town in Latvia, had hesitated, standing on the shore, watching her as she splashed into the murky depths, her bright hair sinking into the water like a golden halo.

"I'll be back in five minutes," she had shouted, laughing as she swam away, barely visible in the dense green of the water.

They waited. Five minutes stretched into ten, and then twenty. Then forty.

Nothing. No shout. No splash. No sign of Kaitlin.

By the time they were about to go after her, it was too late. The sun was low, casting the sky in a red-orange hue, and the air had turned cold. The old man appeared again, his face pale, his eyes hollow. He walked slowly, his hands shaking, as if each step took more effort than the last.

"You shouldn't have gone in the lake," he whispered. "No one comes back. Not once they've gone in."

They didn't listen to him either.

"Where's Kaitlin?" someone asked, their voice full of panic.

The old man said nothing, just stared at them, his eyes deep, like they held something more than just the years of his life.

Kaitlin's friends called out to her, their voices growing more frantic, but the lake remained still. Not a ripple, not a wave. As if it had swallowed her whole.

The air was thick, cold, and damp as they stood on the edge, but none of them dared to move. The old man had already turned, dragging his feet as he retreated into the woods. The last thing he muttered, barely audible, was, "It never stops."

------

The sun had dipped below the trees by the time the others decided to get help. They stood in a tight group, their hands trembling as they tried to reason with each other. No one wanted to believe what they knew in the back of their minds: that Kaitlin was gone, taken by something they couldn't understand.

"Let's just go," one of them said. His voice cracked. "We'll come back tomorrow. We'll tell the police. We'll figure it out."

But the lake kept its secret. Kaitlin was gone. They had all heard the stories. But to see it happen, to watch someone vanish before your eyes... that was different. None of them had the guts to admit it. None of them would.

"We have to go in after her," someone said. They were all looking at one another, trying to read the faces of their friends. No one could speak.

None of them wanted to, but one of them dove in.

The water closed around her like a thick, suffocating blanket. Kaitlin's friend kicked furiously, her hands cutting through the water, looking for her.

And then, just as quickly as it had started, the lake took her too.

No one could explain what happened next. One moment she was there, fighting against the cold grasp of the lake, and the next... she was gone.

The others screamed, panicked, but none of them went in after her. They didn't dare.

They could hear her now, her muffled voice, her screams for help from somewhere below them, from somewhere they couldn't reach. The water whispered her name, but there was no answer.

It was too late for her.

They made no attempt to return the next day.

------

The forest around the lake had grown quiet, almost as if it were holding its breath. Days passed, and the lake seemed to remain as still as it always had been, mocking them.

One by one, the remaining friends disappeared. No one could explain why. They had gone in to search for the others, but they hadn't come back. Some of them, those who stayed behind, swore they heard sounds in the water—faint splashes, the sound of something moving just under the surface. But when they checked, it was always empty.

No one knew what to believe anymore.

Maya, the last one left, stared at the lake from a distance, standing just beyond the treeline. The sun was setting, and the sky was darkening with every passing minute.

She had lost her friends, lost everything. She knew she should have left, but there was something about the lake. Something that kept calling her back.

She walked slowly to the edge. Her feet sank into the soft mud, the cool evening air brushing against her skin. The water looked dark and murky, like something was lurking beneath the surface, but she couldn't stop herself from stepping closer.

The whispers began.

Her name, soft and faraway, drifting from the lake. Her heart thudded in her chest. She turned, half-expecting to see one of her friends emerge from the trees, but there was nothing. The forest was empty, silent.

And then she heard it again.

"Maya."

A splash. A ripple. A face emerged from the depths, familiar but wrong.

It was Kaitlin.

Her face was bloated, discolored, but her eyes—they were wide, glassy, staring at Maya with an almost unnatural hunger. Kaitlin's lips moved, forming a sound that Maya couldn't understand, but it wasn't a word. It was a plea.

Maya's heart pounded. She didn't know whether to run or to call out to her, to try and save her, but her feet felt glued to the ground. The water was rising, creeping up the shore, inch by inch.

The lake called.

"Kaitlin, no," Maya whispered, taking a step back.

Kaitlin's body sank back into the water, vanishing into the darkness. But it wasn't the same. Something remained. Something more. The lake didn't let her go. Not really.

It waited.

------

Maya knew she should have left. But that gnawing feeling, that weight, it grew stronger with every passing hour. She had to go in. She had to see.

The whispers were louder now, calling to her, urging her into the water. They had found her, just like they had found the others.

She waded in, her skin prickling as the cold water surged around her. It tugged at her legs, pulling her deeper, pulling her under. Her body screamed to stop, but she couldn't.

It was too late. She was already in too deep.

Maya's lungs burned as she sank lower, the water turning to pitch black. Her feet kicked helplessly against the sudden pressure, the weight of the water closing in on her from all sides. And then, in the distance, she saw something.

A figure.

Her friends. All of them. Their faces were twisted, wrong, their eyes hollow, their bodies bloated and pale, moving beneath the water like marionettes, just out of reach.

Her body convulsed as she screamed, her voice caught in her throat. The lake didn't let her drown. It pulled her deeper, its cold fingers wrapping around her limbs like a predator, dragging her further away from the surface, from the world above.

But it wasn't the drowning that took her.

It was the emptiness. The crushing emptiness that swallowed her whole.

The lake had claimed her too.

It always did. It always would.

The last thing she felt was the cold, the deep, suffocating cold. And then, nothing.