Ouija board. He pushed me back into the darkest recesses of my brain whilst he went from room to room, chuckling using my voice and doing unspeakable things using my hands.
I watched him helplessly. I couldn't use my mouth, he had control of it, but I could watch every detail of what he was doing through my own eyes. I screamed silently and raged inside my head as he laughed and splashed blood across room after room.
Katie was last. I still don't know how he persuaded her to let him into her room, that part hasn't come back to me yet, but I tried using every ounce of my strength to take my body back once I knew where he was going. I screamed and bellowed and raged as he knocked gently on her door and began to plead with her to let him in.
And now I can feel my head starting to ache again. The lake is tranquil and I didn't dare bring anything out here with me that he could use if he came back. No knives, nothing I could use to kill myself, and nothing he could use when he comes back and takes control.
I keep standing up and looking at the water. It's deep and I know it's icy cold. I could turn the boat over, throw myself into the water and I would be dead within an hour. But I can't. And it's not because I'm a coward.
I just can't stop listening to the voice. The small voice in my head that tells me not to end it now, that we have work to do.
The lake looks like glass. I sit down and stare at it, promising myself that I will end it... I will. But I don't move.
Whispers
by Joleen Kuyper
Whispers.
I glance around,
there's no one there.
Shivers.
Nowhere is cold,
I wonder.
Ideas.
Start to creep in
to my mind.
Paranoia.
Fear confuses me,
I hear -
Whispers.
Eyes
by E.J. Tett
She flicked on the light switch and padded into the kitchen. She stood on her tiptoes as the tiled floor was cold and she couldn't bear placing her whole foot down. She poured a saucer of milk for her cat, though she didn't know where the animal was. Hunting, she thought vaguely.
She turned to make her way back out of the kitchen, as she stepped she felt something wet squelch beneath her toes. She slipped and landed flat on her back with a thud and a gasp. With a groan she sat up. Two cat's eyes were on her kitchen floor, a wet slide mark beneath them from her slip...
She woke up with her heart pounding and breathed an instant sigh of relief. "Just a dream," she whispered.
"Elle? Did you say something?"
"No, Alec, you're hearing things again." Elle rolled over in bed and looked at him. He looked different with his hair shaved, she mused, she wasn't sure if she liked it or not. He gave her a sleepy smile, and she reached out and touched his face gently. His eyes were so dark they were almost black. "I'm getting up," she said.
Alec murmured a reply and rolled over in bed. Elle got up, put her dressing gown on and went to make tea. She stood in the kitchen and gazed out of the window as she waited for the kettle to boil. Their new home stood beside the lake and she could see almost right the way across it from her kitchen window. There were mountains in the distance beyond the lake; she could make out the shape of them through the thin veil of mist that hung in the air today.
The kettle boiled. Elle yawned widely, covering her mouth with the back of her hand, and poured water into two mugs. She felt something brush against the back of her legs and looked down to smile at the cat. "You would freak out if I told you the dream I had last night," she told the cat.
She squeezed out the teabags, poured a little milk into the mugs and then some into a saucer which she left out for the cat. Alec didn't like the animal on the worktops; Elle didn't really see the problem. She left the kitchen and went back to the bedroom with the tea.
Alec was sitting up in bed, scratching his head sleepily. He turned to look at her as she entered the room... His eyes were gone; two empty red sockets remained...
Elle gasped and stepped back, the tea sloshed over the side of the mugs and onto the carpet, she felt hot liquid scald her hands.
"Careful!" Alec exclaimed, jumping out of bed and taking the mugs from her. Elle blinked.
"Your eyes..." she whispered. She frowned in puzzlement and peered at his face. Then she laughed a little and said, "I think I'm still half asleep... I had the strangest dream last night and then when you looked at me just then... God!"
Alec put the mugs on the bedside table and then knelt to dab at the tea on the carpet with a tissue. He looked up at Elle. "What's wrong with my eyes?" he asked.
"Nothing," Elle said, bending to help him. "Nothing at all."
?
When Alec left to go to work, Elle went to sit outside on the porch with her sketchpad and pencils. She looked at the lake and then her blank paper, wondering where she should start. There was a radio sat next to her and she leaned over to switch it on.
She started to draw, outlining the lake and the mountains and the trees at the edges of the lake. She was engrossed in her art, sketching the scenery, adding lines, removing them, her pencil darting across the paper. Her eyes flicked up occasionally to take everything in.
The radio stopped playing suddenly. Then it started again. Elle looked towards it briefly and then tapped her pencil against the pad as she took in the view. The cat came and mewed at her.
"What's up?" Elle asked, smiling at the animal. The cat mewed again and Elle reached out to touch it. The cat hissed, its hackles went up, and it took a few steps back before turning and fleeing from the porch. Elle frowned.
The radio crackled, stopped working briefly, and then found its signal and started up again. Only the station had changed. Elle put her sketchpad down and fiddled with the dial on the radio, trying to get it back to what she was listening to.
Officer... a week, dead a week! Mr... found the body... Something in the...
"Damn thing," Elle muttered, twisting the dial.
Eyes...No witnesses... Officer said that... eyes left... and he saw it come from...
A splash from the lake made Elle look up sharply. Fish jumped out of the water sometimes, she knew that, they caught flies. Somebody told her that once. "Hello?" she called, and then felt instantly self conscious. Was she expecting the fish to reply?!
The lake was still. Elle felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise and she shivered. She stared at the lake. Suddenly the radio came back to life, playing some old track from the 20s that Elle didn't recognise, she gasped, cursed quietly, then scrabbled to turn the radio off. Her heart pounded.
When Elle turned back to the lake she saw the monster. Only its head was out of the water, the rest of the creature lurked beneath the lake's surface. Its skin was grey and flaccid, it had two large eyeless sockets on the front of its face and its teeth, when the creature pulled back its lips at her, were pointed, like a piranha's.
Elle wanted to scream but she couldn't. She drew in a ragged breath and stared. The creature saw her, she knew that. It had no eyes, but it knew she was there. An image flashed into her mind, an image of the creature pulling a corpse into the lake, pulling it down to the depths and devouring it, eating every part of it but the eyes...
She moved then, turning desperately on the porch, running into the house and locking and barring the door behind her, dragging a chair to push up under the door handle. She went to the window to peer out at the lake, to make sure the thing hadn't followed her.
The lake was still and calm. The monster... whatever it was, was gone.
Elle stood for a moment, her breath coming in short fearful gasps as she stared at the lake. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks and she wiped them away distractedly. She didn't want to leave the house in case it was there waiting for her, waiting to devour her, it had shown her what it would do to her, what it had done to others...
She sobbed and then covered her mouth quickly. She tore her gaze away fr
om the window and looked for her phone. It was on the kitchen table where she'd left it; she grabbed it and punched in Alec's number.
"Alec! It's me, answer your damn phone! Come home as soon as you get this message, there's something here, something in the lake... I heard something on the radio, saw this thing... Just come home!"
Elle clasped her phone tightly and pulled opened a drawer. She took out the biggest kitchen knife she came across and held it. She stood for a moment wondering what to do, then she pushed the knife through her belt, pocketed her phone and ran to the front door.
A shape moved behind the frosted glass of the door and Elle brandished the knife. "Try it," she growled.
There was a pause, a muffled curse and a jangle of keys, and then Alec opened the door. "Jesus!" he exclaimed, taking a step back and almost falling down off the doorsteps. He righted himself quickly and stared at Elle, his dark eyes wide.
"You got my message?!" she asked. "We've got to get out of here."
"Elle, woah, calm down, what message?" Alec asked, coming inside. He closed the front door and then took his shoes off, regarding Elle warily.
"I rang you!" Elle cried, watching him, wondering how he could be so calm. Then, "What are you doing home?!"
"Got off early," Alec said, shrugging