Chapter Four

The Uninvited

 

March 15th, Thursday. 7PM. 125 S.A.

Canton du Valais, Monthey, Switzerland.

"It's been three hours," Vanessa said, staring at the motionless fishing pole, stuck in the ground, and stifled a laugh looking at her boyfriend Adank.

He was sliding a hand under her jacket and with his index finger was trying to poke her in the ribs. He had tickled her, but the truth is that the bastard's fingers were cold as ice and it made her shiver. Adank blinked and stared at the girl sitting above him on the deck chair. He certainly liked having his girlfriend lying next to him, but for several minutes he felt that his legs had fallen asleep.

"Maybe he scared the fish away with his face," said the other girl, Maggie, sitting near the campfire with her boyfriend, Norman.

"Fish don't work like your equations," Norman said.

"Fuck you," Adank said, yawning.

It was simply a campfire, something to eat, and beers. It was no special celebration, just a get-together as an excuse to have a good time and catch some fish. The four of them had been friends for years and took advantage of the reunion to tell anecdotes about how they were doing in their university studies, since they had not seen each other for months. Adank lived nearby as a child, and a relative had a weekend house nearby, so they decided to go to the place since he knew it.

Still it seemed that the fishing venture was not going well.

"Kiss me," Adank said to Vanessa. And he puffed out his lips, which seemed to her as if they were those of one of the fish he was trying to catch.

"No, you stink of alcohol," Vanessa replied.

"It doesn't usually bother you," he said.

"A beer maybe, not a whole pack. I don't like beer breath."

"I'm a bee… bee breath," said Adank, drunkenly.

The young couple was fairly close to the lake shore, Adank planted his fishing pole close enough to the water in case any fish took a bite. A couple of yards away rested the other three rods motionless.

Norman and Maggie gave up after about an hour but Adank continued, and Vanessa accompanied him until about half an hour ago, where she also set up the rod and lay down beside him. The truth is that Adank had fond memories of the place, from when he was a little boy and his father, along with his grandfather, took him fishing there on several occasions.

"What are you guys doing in there? Come on over here," Norman invited them, stoking the campfire with Maggie.

"Maybe we should go, it's getting late," Maggie said, checking the time on her Neurowire.

"But we've barely, caught anything," Adank replied.

"I don't think they're going to bite later either. And what were you hoping to catch anyway, a mermaid?"

"Maybe I'd have better luck kissing one. A fey mermaid... who doesn't care how many beers I have on me," Adank said, making a thoughtful face.

"You're not that lucky...mostly of them are really dangerous," laughed Vanessa.

"Tactical mermaid," murmured Norman.

"Oh, it bit! It bit!" Adank exclaimed, twisting his head at Norman. "It's yours, you idiot!"

Norman ran over, grabbed the rod and started reeling in the line and it was a big disappointment when he pulled out a small fish. "Tch. Damn, I thought it was a big one. I felt a strong tug."

"Are you sure it's safe to eat fish from this lake?" Maggie asked, sitting on a log near the campfire.

"What's wrong with it?" Adank asked.

"This lake didn't exist in the old era," she replied. "Who knows what's down there."

"It's the same waters that flow from the Lemac, only this part has a different name though."

"There's a whole city under these waters, right?" Vanessa asked, getting up from the lounge chair, and Adank took the opportunity to stretch out. He felt that his body had fallen asleep from having the girl lying on top of him for so long.

"More like a couple of cities. But they were evacuated before the war," Adank explained, yawning.

"What about the enchanted lake then?" Maggie asked.

"Bah… just rumors," Norman replied.

Vanessa watched the calm waters and how the darkness made it impossible to see more than a dozen meters from where they stood. But on the other side of the lake, the lights of the city of Ollon flickered like the stars in the firmament.

Although she was warm, she could not suppress a shiver due to the cold breeze and turned on the night vision in her eyes to better see where she was walking. "I'll be right back," she said walking away from the group.

"Where are you going?" Maggie asked.

"I have to pee," she said, and turned to look at the two boys. "Neither one of you better turn on the night vision, or anything."

"We all have it on. How do you think we're going to see in the dark?"

The girl sighed. She would have to get a few more yards away.

After relieving herself she walked a little way, following the calm swell of the shore. She couldn't deny that she liked the place despite the darkness and the fact that it was getting colder. She kicked a couple of rocks into the water and walked a couple more steps when she stumbled.

Her foot had caught on something.

"What the fuck?"

She fell into the water, wet up to her knees and she cursed her luck. It was already too cold to get her clothes wet, and the pants she was wearing were not the self-drying kind either. She got up, getting her hands dirty in the mud, but when she tried to continue walking, she realized that her foot was once again caught in the weeds on the shore.

No. It wasn't that. Those were not weeds.

Something really grabbed her left foot.

She looked down and saw how something full of mud was attached to her foot. She tried to pull it off, and realized almost instantly that it wasn't dirt from the lake or a plant.

It was a hand.

A bony, muddy hand with big knuckles, held her by the ankle.

She let out a scream that alerted her friends and shook her leg free of the thing. That's when she got a better look. An arm bony as the hand was rising from the lake, and soon she saw a head with long hair poking out of the water and the muck.

"Guys, help!!!" Vanessa yelled.

Her friends at the campfire, just fifty yards away, stood up and looked in her direction, alerted by the loud scream.

"What's wrong?!" Maggie shouted.

"Come here! There's something in the water!"

The girl watched in terror as the thing was trying to pull itself up on two arms, but it seemed to have no strength and fell back into the muddy water face down.

Her boyfriend, meanwhile, lulled by the sound of the water, and the beers, had started to fall asleep, when the other girl woke him up screaming.

"Wake up!!!" she cried, the young girl in desperation.

"Guys, I need help now! Come on!" Vanessa kept calling.

"What's wrong?!" Adank asked, not quite sure Vanessa was serious. After all she was the prankster of the group. "Maybe she found the mermaid," Adank laughed, thinking it was a joke.

Maggie watched in the darkness as her friend raised her arms in desperation, calling out to them.

"She needs you, right now! Get up!!!" Maggie shouted loudly.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Adank said drunkenly, trying to sit up as best he could.

It was then that, despite the alcohol, he saw his girlfriend waving her arms from near the water.

"Please help me!!!" shouted the girl, even louder.

"Oh shit, something's wrong with her." Adank said finally, rushing in her direction.

In a matter of seconds the group reached the desperate young woman, but they didn't understand at first what exactly they were seeing.

"Come here, I can't do it alone," Vanessa urged. She had gone into the water and was waist deep, now trying to pull something out.

The group of three then realized.

"Is that... a corpse?" Norman asked, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

The girl was trying to drag a naked body covered in mud out of the water that seemed to be too heavy for her because of the muddy silt.

"Let it go, are you nuts?! We have to call the police!" Adank exclaimed.

"He's not dead!" Vanessa said.

"What?!"

As if it was some kind of zombie the body shook and turned around spitting water.

"What the heck!" Norman said and went in Vanessa's direction.

He was a very old man, with long white hair and a long beard, although at the time the color was barely discernible due to the dirt. His skin was so stuck to his bones that he might as well have passed for a mummy. The features of his face were gaunt, and he didn't seem to have enough strength to even stand up. The difficulty in moving him was due to how muddy the area was.

The group of youngsters tried to move him, carefully as they could, while the old man continued to spit water and black mud.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" Vanessa exclaimed.

"What ambulance? There's no address here!" Adank replied.

"Just send the location by NW!"

"Sir, can you hear me?" Maggie asked.

While the two girls took over, holding him by the arms, Norman took over the feet. Adank was too drunk to help with anything.

The old man opened his eyes slightly and they could see that he had a white stare, with misty pupils. He was completely blind. Had he fallen into the water? If so, why was he naked?

Vanessa, who was holding his left arm, soon felt a strong pull on her neck. With a strength that someone so malnourished and bony should not have, the old man had grabbed the collar of her coat and was saying something in a language the girl did not understand.

"Sir! Can you hear me? What is your name?"

The incoherent mumbling continued. Adank could hear it too, he wondered if because of the alcohol his Neurowire's linguistic system might be failing. But they all heard the same thing.

"Your name, can you tell us your name?" Maggie asked.

The old man then softened his grip and spoke in some language that the Neurowire identified as understandable and stammered as he spit out water. "I-I can't remember. w-where am I? w-who am I?"

He had a deep voice, despite his weakness, almost sounding metallic in tone. And both girls with their night visions activated and, despite the dirt of the mud, saw that the man's mouth showed perfect teeth. On the other hand Norman estimated that despite being in such a state the old man must have been quite tall and had bony knees.

The group deposited him on the shore, away from the water, and Norman tried to get him to sit up, but the group was terrified when they saw him begin to convulse. Norman took it upon himself to try to keep his head still, amidst the tremors of the seizure.

"Call an ambulance, dammit!" Maggie mumbled to Adank.

What should have been a peaceful reunion had turned into something unexpected.

Where had the old man who had ruined the evening come from?

To Adank, despite his drunkenness, it seemed that he had seen something similar a long time ago, but he couldn't remember exactly what it was about.