The Lake

The Lake

Gina felt lucky to get a job at the camp. A ward of the state, it was like heaven to be here for the summer. She participated in activities with the rest of the teens and paid her way doing office work. Most of the campers thought she was just another camper.

Gina met Jeff her first day, one of the few who knew her circumstances. Good friends from the start, Gina wished it was more. All the girls were after him, especially Molly, a rich blonde who didn’t take no for an answer. Yet Jeff still hung around with Gina.

One day she found a note in her mailbox, “Meet me on the dock at 8,” written in blocky masculine printing, Gina thought it was finally time. No more friend zone.

But Jeff hadn’t written it. Molly being her usual spoiled self, wrote it. Then snuck up behind Gina on the dock to whisper “He’s taken!” and push her into the lake, laughing all the way back to the hall. With loud music blasting, nobody even suspected she’d been gone.

Embarrassed and hurt, Gina snuck out of camp that night, making her way home, and never went back.

...
Harold was new, as he walked the sanitarium with Tom, who’d worked there thirty years, they passed a room where an elderly woman was chained to her chair. She was mumbling something over and over.

“What’s the story there?” he asked, a bit shocked at the chains.

“Before my time really, all I know is that’s all she says, over and over. She’s been here most of her life, I heard. They chain her in because the chains calm her down, otherwise she runs away, usually to the lake.”

“What’s she saying?” Harold asked.

“I didn’t know she couldn’t swim...”