Beneath the Surface



  Beneath the Surface

  Copyright 2014 Lindsey Macqueen

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  About Lindsey Macqueen

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank my sisters Leslie and Fiona, who are always willing to explore my imagination with me and stay up late with me while I try to get it onto paper. Sometimes I wonder if my work would turn out as well without the help of you guys. Thanks to my sister Jennie for being my study buddy and being there when I need a break. Thank you to Maddie, my bookworm friend, who I can always count on to read over my work and help me with the editing process. Thanks to Nicholas, for being his wonderful self. And, of course, a big thank you to my parents, whose love and support make anything possible.

  Prologue

  The small and isolated Finnish town of Järves had been controlled for centuries by a fear borne from old folklore and legend––a fear that had been carried down through the generations. This fear centred itself heavily around a particular lake. From as far back as they could remember, Mikael and Lori were forbidden to even enter the forest leading to it. Any possible entrance to the lake was spotted with warning signs, all so aged and worn from centuries’ of weather that they were barely even legible. It was said that those foolish enough to venture to the lake never returned, and any unexplainable disappearances or deaths throughout the history of Järves were supposedly connected to it. Fear of it had everybody tucked away by 9.30 at night. Only the careless and the unwise wandered the streets at night.

  Chapter One

  Eleven-year-old Lori felt like the only one in the town with half a brain. She was determined to find out the truth about the lake. Her gawky and gangly best-friend Mikael, only a year older than her, was as afraid as everybody else, but the two of them were inseparable, and he couldn’t let her go alone. He agreed to go so that he could make sure she didn’t get herself into trouble, but only on a number of conditions. So on a winter’s evening, Lori and Mikael met behind their school and snuck out to the lake for the first time. They carried a rucksack each––one of Mikael’s conditions––packed with food, survival gear and homemade weapons he insisted were necessary. Neither of them really believed that the lake itself could be dangerous, but if they were to encounter a murderous man, a great beast or a vile creature, Mikael made sure they were prepared.

  Once they reached the lake, they found nothing and nobody there. It was no different to any other lake in the area. Lori was disappointed. Even though she was sceptical about the stories, she expected to find more than just an eerie silence. While this absence of danger actually made Mikael more wary and apprehensive, it validated Lori’s suspicion that the stories were bogus. Furthermore, they both made it back out of the forest alive, so Lori decided that they were to visit it again the next day. And although Mikael was watchful of the area and of Lori, he enjoyed having a place for them both to disappear to.

  For months, the two of them spent their free time together sneaking down to the lake. Mikael set up a perimeter around it with some sticks and a piece of string that was meant to make sure they didn’t get too close to the water, but Lori quickly grew restless and tired of his overly cautious attitude. Much to Mikael’s distress, she crossed his boundary several times, and got closer to the ice each day, until she eventually made it to the edge and sat herself down. It took several days of beckoning and persuading before she convinced Mikael to sit with her, but he eventually joined her on the snow, his rucksack close beside him. He wished Lori still brought hers.

  The more they visited, the more adamant Lori was that the lake itself was completely harmless, and the more she ignored Mikael’s pleas. It wasn’t long before Lori was bored with sitting on the snow and wanted to venture onto the ice itself. There wasn’t enough strength or evidence in Mikael’s argument to change her mind, so Lori did as she pleased. The lake was not entirely frozen over, with a large gap in the centre, but the ice was thick. Once Mikael realised the ice didn’t crack and the lake didn’t swallow Lori, he found little reason not to join her.

  Lori went out in front, holding his hand and stretching her leg to kick out in front of them to make sure that the ice was sturdy enough to walk over. He carried a few blankets in his flailing hands for them to sit or lie on. He hadn’t dared walk on ice before, but he didn’t expect it to make him feel so heavy. It was as if his feet were magnetically connected to something under the water. He shuffled behind Lori, scared that the ice under him might crack from the force. He assumed that Lori felt it too, but judging from the way he’d seen her prance around, she obviously didn’t let it bother her. So he kept his mouth shut. He decided that he should stop worrying, and be more like Lori. Eventually, he began to relax.

  For a time it was perfect, and even Mikael began to doubt the truth behind the apparently dangerous lake. The both of them would lie on their blankets and talk for hours about whatever they pleased until it was time to go home. But then two girls from their school went missing. The Järves Police and townspeople scoured the town, day and night, and Mikael and Lori decided not to go to the lake until everything quietened down. In the end, one person said what the whole town was thinking––that there was only one explanation. The entire town went into panic, and heavily armed police went through the forest to the lake in search of clues. When they found were two sets of footprints leading down to the water, it was quickly determined that the girls were taken by the lake.

  Despite the recent snow-fall and the fact that they hadn’t been there for days, Lori was certain that the girls just ran away to the city, and that those footprints were hers and Mikael’s. She refused to believe that the lake took the girls, and argued that if it did, it would have taken them as well by now. She promised Mikael she would stop going, but he was suspicious that she went anyway. Whenever he asked her about it, she snapped at him and accused him of not trusting her. They continually disagreed about the safety of the lake until they eventually couldn’t spend time together without bickering, and began to avoid each other at school. Then Lori stopped turning up altogether. It wasn’t long before Mikael discovered that Lori had told the school she was on a family holiday, and her parents that she was on a school camp. Although he didn’t want to admit it, he was certain that the lake had something to do with Lori’s absence. He ran desperately to it.