#ailslyn

She said that I clearly hadn’t seen enough of the school yet. It made me laugh. She really didn’t get me, not until I took her back to where I spend my summers as a kid.

Everyone’s heard that long drawn out story about the otherworldly connotations to crossroads and in-betweens and rest stops of all things. And this place was somehow strung between all of those. Literally, a belt of farmland between rainy temperate forest and total wasteland, bordering a rest stop and an intersection leading into an overpass.

Not to mention it’s just a really neat little spot.

I only applied to EU in the first place because my cousin did and she liked it well enough, said it was my kind of place. And she was right. I felt at home there.

But I felt at home in the green belt, the place that never seemed to make it fully to the present day, with the three lakes all feeding into each other, the farthest back only reachable by an eight mile trail, where you could see the very glacier that fed it.

My whole life is wanted to go up there. I hadn’t even known there was more than one lake for years. Back when my grandfather ran the joint we never went back behind the first lake. He refused to take us up to the second. But once he passed my dad took us to the second lake and when I heard about the third I knew I had to go.

“Rae,” my roommate, who was referred to as Ailslyn, begged me, “it’s weird how much you want to hike up to that lake. Like I get it, you basically spent your entire childhood in a place like Elsewhere, but even I get weird vibes from that place.”

“Ailslyn, you don’t understand. I just need to. That lake is calling me.”

“Well you know what else calls you? Telemarketers, fake foreign relatives begging for money, politicians, do you answer those?”

“… water has never failed me Ailslyn. If you don’t want to go, just stay here.”

She went anyway. I could tell she was worried but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Not about the bugs I so greatly feared, not about the summer heat or the lengthy walk. I had to get to the lake.

It was every bit the lake I’d thought it would be, a perfect circle surrounded by ice, surely so cold I’d die if I entered.

And yet. I could not stop myself. From the moment we entered the clearing I was sprinting to the water, the very last thing I witnessed was my body splashing ungracefully into the icy black depths.

…

I woke up in the fountain outside our dorm, head resting on the stone edge.

I was wearing nothing but my undergarments.

Leaning over me was the dorm advisor Sherry, a red haired woman who never seemed to take any precautions like the rest of us.

“Rae dear… why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

I didn’t understand. How had I gotten back to school? Where was Ailslyn? Where were my clothes?

“Honey, sweetheart, did they never tell you what you were?”

What I am?

What-

I notice a weight around my neck. Ailslyn’s locket. She never let anyone touch it. Not even me.

Carefully, I open the gold locket, surprised to find what looked to be a phone’s SIM card in place of a photo, encased in plastic wrap to deter water damage.

Once I’m inside and clothed, Sherry and I put the card into my phone, which was somehow intact, here, and in working order.

In all of the data the only recent thing we find is a video of the hike.

It’s showing the last moments before we reach the lake.

My voice rises up, sounding different than I remember-

“I can’t wait! This is what I’ve been dreaming of for years Ailslyn! It’s like I’m coming home for the-”

And then I’m sprinting, crashing into the later with all the grace of a dying walrus. And I sink.

The camera shakes as Ailslyn rushes to the waters edge.

“Rae? RAE?!”

A hand, covered in scales, nails clearly painted with my favorite purple nail polish that’s still on them now, reaches out and heals at her long brown braids, inducing a struggle. Before Ailslyn is tugged into the water herself, she manages to rip off the necklace and throw it and the phone to the center of the clearing.

The screen goes dark for a minute or so, I could hear no struggling.

And then someone picks up the phone, I can barely see his rugged features with the was the sun is shining.

The man sighs, and stops the video, and that’s it.

I fell unconscious immediately.