The Lake: The Complete Special Edition

By M.D. LaBelle

When a tentacle emerges from the mist covering the Lake and chokes the last dying breath from the Johnson's beagle Petey, things start to go strangely wrong in the quaint little town of Haven. At first, no one notices when Jonathan Robinson disappears. However, when Anne Smith's mother Laura realizes that something is horribly wrong with her, sh

• Language: English
• Publisher: Casper Publishing
• Release date: May 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088062067

M.D. LaBelle

M.D. LaBelle is an international award-winning, and bestselling multi genre author of 50 plus books in horror, dark romance, fantasy, erotica, thriller, romance, psychological thriller, suspense, youth horror and children's books. She currently resides in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and has been living in lower Michigan her whole life. She has her books online at almost all book retailers, including her own at mdlabelle.com and also in several physical stores too.

Book preview

Chapter 1:  A Strike In The Dark

Ironically enough, when the Johnson’s 6-year-old Beagle Petey disappeared suddenly one hot August summer night, no one noticed, not a single soul.  Not even after the sun crested over the tree line and the thick fog had burned off the lake as it did every morning.  Or when Petey’s half-eaten, waterlogged carcass lay partially submerged merely a dozen feet from the sandy shoreline.

No one became alarmed at the strangled sounds of high-pitched yelps that he made as the slimy tentacle rose out of the water with barely a splash and then wrapped around his neck tightly to stop his wild barking.  As he halted his alerts to his people, it stopped for a moment to curl a second dark grey tendril in the air as if it was checking for something, before the first quickly dragged poor Petey to his watery grave. The scariest part of all of this was the fact that no more than a mile away in her log cabin home in the middle of the woods, slept Anne Smith a 15-year-old with fair skin, curly, long blonde hair, and the bluest eyes.  They are a strange shade of blue that can only be compared to the pristine waters of the Caribbean with its white sand and its greenish blue water. 

As she lay silently, she tossed and turned, dreaming of something reaching for her in the darkness.  That something was always merely just a few inches away, but it never touched her until right before she woke up suddenly.  When she bolted up in bed and sat there staring into the darkness of her bedroom, she squinted, while listening for anything to alarm her. 

All she heard was the tick tock of the grandfather clock in the hallway by her bedroom.  After cocking her head, she tried her hardest to focus on something in the corner while she waited for her vision to adjust to the shadows that were moving all around her.  As she sat there completely still, she never knew that a slimy substance oozed from underneath her in the darkness while she was dreaming. 

The mere fact that her covers had been shredded as they lay there scattered across the floor should have been an indicator that something was horribly wrong, but she never noticed.  Instead, when her mother Laura walks in with a happy little smile on her face, she pauses as she takes in the utter disarray of the room for a moment.  She looks from her daughter Anne to the hardwood flooring where the white cotton sheets are all bunched up.  Because she notices something odd about the way they look, she glances back up to her and stares for a moment while she wonders if she should even bother with it.

Anne, did you have another nightmare? she asks hesitantly as she kneels to gather up the sheet.  Before Anne ever gets a chance to answer, Laura notices that it is all torn when the cloth slips through her fingers like butter.

The sheets fall to the floor in a clump, and she becomes alarmed while glancing over to the bed where Anne still sits.  She asks in an apprehensive tone, What happened?

Startled by this, Anne looks at her mother in disbelief quickly, then asks while furrowing her brow as she begins to climb off the bed slowly, Wha-what do you mean?

The moment the heel of her foot hits the slimy substance, she slides across the hardwood floor before her bottom makes a loud thump as she bounces.  She glances up at her mother fearfully at the same time as she startles from the pain that shoots throughout her, before Laura rushes to her side and asks in concern, Oh, honey.  Are you alright?

Hesitating, Anne nods before brushing her right hand across the worn wood and feeling a cold, slippery substance on her fingertips.  While raising it to her eyes, she notices that it is translucent.  The moment she smells it she almost throws up because it reminds her of a dead fish that has been sitting for far too long.  As she stares at it intently, she rubs her thumb and forefinger together while feeling the slimy texture of the thick mucus that clings to her skin like a glove.

Ewe. She murmurs under her breath as she tries to shake it off her fingers with no success.

It clings to her as if it is her second skin, so she takes Laura’s outstretched hand carefully before standing up and then walking over to the nightstand to fetch a tissue to wipe it off with.  After pulling a single sheet out, she wrinkles it between her other hand while running it across the affected area.  Nothing, for some reason after removing the tissue, the slime is still there.

Alright.  That is gross, mom it’s still there.  She states with disgust on her face as she holds her upturned palm towards her mother so she can have a look at the foreign substance that is clinging to her skin.

As Laura leans in closer to inspect it, she takes a hold of Anne’s wrist and steadies it before investigating further. 

Hm.  Interesting. Laura murmurs to herself absentmindedly as she begins to touch the substance with her own fingertip. 

It is slippery but has the same texture of that slime I had bought you when you were younger.  Do you remember that? She asks thoughtfully while leaning in even closer to smell it.

Right away, she backs off and exclaims, Phew. As she releases Anne’s hand and then waves her own in front of her nose. 

When she scrunches her face as if she has smelled a skunk, she quickly pinches off her nostrils and then stands up straight before going to look for something. 

On the way out of the room, she glances back at Anne before stating, I’ll be back in a second.  I am going to see if that hand degreaser will take it off.

While Anne stares after her, the ooze under the bed begins to recede and dry up.  However, the substance on her skin remains for the mean time.  That’s odd. she says under her breath when she looks down and notices that the original slick spot that she had slipped in is no longer there.

As soon as Laura rushes in with a big smile spreading across her soft lips, and a small green bottle containing a clear liquid in her hand, she states excitedly, I found it. before walking over to Anne who stands staring out the window hauntingly.

She didn’t even realize that she had made her way over to the window and was standing there staring blankly outside.  Oddly enough, she feels now as if something is calling to her and can’t help but to keep her eyes peeled to the clearing just beyond the patch of woods.  A patch of woods that leads to the lake where she has had so many fun summers with her family before her dad died last year.  It really is a shame though, because if they had just figured out why he was passing out, he may never have blacked out at the wheel on the way home from work.

After remembering back to that night, all she can recall is the fact that when her mother opened the door, she saw the police standing there with somber looks on their faces.  The fact that she could not handle watching her mother fall to her knees as she sobbed uncontrollably for what seemed like hours, says that she was not strong enough.  Not a single word was said from what she could hear, but her mother knew in that instant what had happened. 

She cried out painfully, No, no. repeatedly on her knees and she never moved a single inch until Aunt Mary rushed to the door.  The moment she did, she took Laura in her open arms and held her like it was the end of the world.

That night Anne was forced to become strong and realize that not everything in this world is perfect, not even close.  By the time they did the autopsy they found out that he had developed narcolepsy.  It is a shame because all of it could have been avoided by putting him on medicine.  However, it was far too late for that because the damage had already been done.

When Laura calls out to Anne, it finally breaks the spell that the lake holds over her as she turns with a slow smile spreading across her lips before staring at her mother sweetly.

Here.  Give me your hand and I will rub some of this on it.  We will soon see if it works or not.  Laura says as she produces a scrap of red cloth from her pocket before applying a splash of the contents onto it.

Taking Anne’s hand, she begins to rub the cloth softly over her skin at first.  When it has no effect, she begins to rub it in even harder.  After a few seconds, she removes the fabric and raises Anne’s hand to her face so she can inspect it.

Hm. She mutters under her breath when she notices that her efforts were to no avail.

Then she shakes her head and disappointingly says, That simply will not do.  I just don’t understand.  Is it like super glue or something?  Is it an adhesive? 

As she looks down and scans the area where the ooze had previously been, a stray thought pops into her head.  Then she scans the room to see if it was anywhere else before saying quietly as her voice trails off, Hm.  I wonder if.

She frowns as she kneels carefully while she looks under the bed and notices one little spot that is still damp.  Uh huh.  Gotcha! She exclaims while taking the now empty bottle and scraping the slime into it for safe keeping.

After she pushes herself back up to a standing position, she glances around the room to find that Anne has returned to the window.  She is staring out into the dark as if her life depends on it, so Laura decides to grab Anne’s attention when she starts to feel uneasy with the way her daughter is acting.  She clears her throat and states, By the way, I am going to run this into town to the scientist up on the hill.  Why don’t you go into the bathroom and try scrubbing it with soap and water?  It will probably come off that way.

Anne doesn’t answer her, so she walks over to her and takes a hold of her shoulder firmly before asking, What is out there that is so fascinating?

When once again there is no reply, she gently turns her around and gasps as soon as she looks into Anne’s eyes.  Anne stares back at her blankly and acts as if she didn’t even hear what Laura had said to her.  No more than a second later, she blinks quickly before cocking her head and asking in a monotone voice, What did you say mom?

At this point, Laura feels completely conflicted, so she decides to stay put for the moment.  Instead, she opts to watch her daughter very carefully for the time being.  After all, she is more important than anything else in the world.  Whatever is happening here is more than just a patch of slime on the floor, but it will just have to wait until Anne stops acting like something is horribly wrong.

Chapter 2:  Laura

When Anne’s symptoms don’t improve, I finally decide that it is time to enlist the help of someone else.  Someone I had wished I would never have to contact again.  However, As I watch her fall asleep from the old rocking chair in the corner of her room that my mother had given to me as a teenager, I slowly lower my defenses at least a little bit.  But then I realize I must get down to work and figure out exactly what is going on here.

So, as I wrap my fingers around the brass knob, I quietly shut the door to Anne’s bedroom.  Then I try to remember the phone number of the scientist I once went out with in Miller’s Berg.  When I stop for a second to listen, I scan the hallway and then look out the small square window by the bathroom before eventually walking to the kitchen.

Damn it!  Why can’t I remember these things when it is important? I ask myself quietly while picking up the rose-colored phone to search his name online. 

A few minutes later, I begin to wonder if I am doing the right thing by keeping her home, because right now I am worried that Anne is being affected by some unknown chemical and perhaps even being poisoned. 

Should I take her to the hospital? I murmur under my breath before sitting down at the white kitchen table to type in the name Doctor Andrew Reynolds after it suddenly pops in my head.

Ah, ha. I whisper as I run my fingertip over the search button and a half dozen entries appear on the screen. 

The first entry belongs to a pediatrician in Ellisville who is far older than the one I have previously met.  The second result sends me to a tattoo site where a Doctor Reynolds is apparently famous for his artistic renditions of brightly colored dragon tattoos.  While I quickly start to become frustrated, I still keep looking.

After I search through most of the others, I click the one that finally brings me to a page with a picture of a man who looks awfully familiar with his arms folded over his chest.  This is the same man I had a blind date with several years ago.  As I remember back to it, I recall the arrogant way he would look at me as if I was nothing because I became pregnant with Anne at 16.

I am not going to lie, there have been instances that I thought about my mistakes from time to time, but I never regret the day that I gave birth to Anne.  Never.  As a matter of fact, I am being to regret even thinking about calling Doctor Reynolds for any kind of help, regardless of the situation at hand. 

If he opens his mouth once and tells me that I am not smart because I don’t have a college degree, I am liable to shove my foot up his butt and send him packing.  After all, when we met the first time, all he could talk about was himself and how intelligent he was because he graduated at the first of his class with honors.

So, with heavy heart, I hover over the phone number and try to decide if this is worth the hassle or not.  Can he help me and Anne?  Or will this be a giant catastrophe?

While sighing, I run my finger over the phone number deliberately as it connects and all I hear is the sound of his answering machine’s computerized voice.  As I listen to it, I quickly decide that I don’t want to leave a message, so I hang up.  However, surprisingly enough, the phone rings right afterwards and his name pops up on my phone’s screen.

Shit! I exclaim as I stare at it before slouching down in my chair and hitting the answer button.

Before I get a chance to say anything, I hear a deep, gruff male’s voice on the other end stating, You could have called earlier, you know.

Because I am already regretting my choices, I swallow hard and say hesitantly, I need your help.

A second later, I hear him clear his voice before he replies mockingly, Need my help?  If I recall, the last time we spoke, you told me to not bother ever calling you again.

As I slouch down in my chair even