Crystal Lake

Welcome to Crystal Lake State Park! The park is open from sunset to sunrise. Enjoy your visit! Prima was a little confused about the sign at the entrance to the lake. Only stay here at night? Usually, nighttime was when most local parks advised you to leave the premises, to enjoy the park at daytime. She couldn’t see the beautiful waters of the lake, she couldn’t take photos of this famous location! She didn’t think much more about it though, and promised herself to leave before sunrise.

Prima began to set up her small tent quickly, as the sun was almost down. She set it up by the shore of the lake, not too far away, but not too close as she didn’t want to be swept into the water. All these years of being a nature freak, and she still didn’t know how to swim. She remembered asking her mother one day, if she could take swimming lessons. “I might want to camp by the ocean or a lake, and swimming is one of the things I could do to pass the time,” she reasoned. But her mother wouldn’t have her go anywhere near large bodies of water. “What have I always told you? The waters are full of disease and monsters. Even if you know how to swim, they will still take you!”

Prima had never understood why her mother was like that. Whatever the reason, she wanted nothing to do with superstition. Nature was never out to get you, she always believed. Suddenly, Prima noticed that her eyes felt buggy, and her head was drooping down. The sun was already down, and she was just standing there in the cold. Prima quickly got in her tent and zipped herself up in her sleeping bag, welcoming the warmth back into her body before drifting off into what hopefully would be a peaceful sleep.

Prima dreamt of a man standing knee deep in the water of Crystal Lake. It had to be Crystal Lake, where else was the water so unnaturally clear? He was standing in the water, and then he began to walk deeper into the lake, deeper and deeper until he was neck deep. He then turned to her and said “Come in with me. Come in, the waters will welcome you.” His head sank under the water with a smile on his face.

Prima jolted awake with a start. She hadn’t had dreams in a while, and that one was quite weird. Why was she so clearly dreaming about Crystal Lake? And why was a man welcoming her to drown in it? She started to feel weirdly terrified, terrified of this ominous dream. “It’s just a dream” she tried to tell herself, but that feeling was still there. She quickly packed her sleeping bag and went outside of her tent…and the feeling of terror compounded.

The sun was up.

The sun was up, and it had been up for a couple hours.

Prima’s breathing suddenly intensified. Before she knew it her tent had been packed up, her backpack on her shoulders, and she was frantically scrambling to the entrance. She didn’t know why, all she knew was that she had to get away from the lake.

Oh, but it was already too late.

She hadn’t made it even halfway to the entrance when something, something in the wind,

compelled her to turn around.

And she did.

And she started walking back towards the lake.

Why had she so desperately wanted to escape? The waters were so clear, she HAD to go for a

swim. Why had she tried to run away?

Her feet went in the lake, then her legs, and her chest, all welcoming the cool clear water.

She saw other people in the water with her, the man in her dream last night, a smiling little girl, and many others. They were all laughing and smiling in the water, and they beckoned her to come closer, as they dove underneath.

She followed them, putting her head underneath the water, and diving deeper, deeper, seeing everything so clearly underwater.

She didn’t want to go back up. It looked beautiful down here.

She felt herself slowly filling up with something, something that wasn’t supposed to be in there, but she didn’t do anything about that. Why would she?

And so Crystal Lake welcomed another permanent resident.

Audrey Kim is currently a senior at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. She has previously been recognized with two gold keys in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and has had her writing featured in Sonderful Writings magazine.