Chapter 17 Lydia
Lydia
Ican’t stop smiling as I replay my night with Hendricks. It caught me by surprise and has me reconsidering this whole trip. Maybe Nightmare Acres isn’t such a bad place after all if that’s how I get to spend my nights here from now on.
When my friends finally made their way back to our cabin it was nearly morning.
My body was sore but satisfied. I have no idea what transpired outside these four walls, but when Maverick came back, he looked inches from death.
And not seeing Jack at all had me wondering what the hell transpired out there.
“I think we should just hang by the lake today. I’m exhausted,” Faye yawns, stretching her arms up into the air.
“I agree,” Audrey mumbles.
“Whatever happened to you last night, Lyd? You disappeared.” McKenzie asks. I feel my face heat at the attention.
“You dirty slut. Did you do all three of those guys?” Faye shrieks.
“No,” I answer rolling my eyes. Though I wouldn’t object if the opportunity presents itself. “There was some kind of commotion happening out in the woods. Maverick and Jack went to go investigate and Hendricks stayed here with me.”
“Ugh, tell me you didn’t do the nasty on my bed,” Faye responds and a part of me wants to fuck with her for giving me a hard time.
“Yeah, Faye. I rolled around naked with a guy all over your sheets and then let you sleep on it.”
A pillow hits me on the side of the head, and I toss it back at Stephanie.
“You guys are being so loud,” she says looking absolutely wrecked.
She’s still wearing last night’s makeup, and her hair is skewed in a messy bun that’s more mess than bun.
She takes the pillow I thew back at her and shoves it under her head, yanking the blanket over her eyes dramatically.
Stephanie always thinks she can drink more than she can and then pays for it later.
“Sorry, Steph,” we say in unison. To which she shows us her perfectly manicured middle finger.
“Hey, whatever happened to that Australian couple? I don’t think I’ve seen them since we got here,” Iris says.
“You’re right,” I say, with a frown. “Maybe they went home.”
“Or got eaten by a bear,” Faye says with a laugh.
“What about you guys? What happened last night?” I ask my friends since we were all too tired to really get into it when they stumbled in this morning.
“I can’t remember anything but alcohol,” McKenzie says, popping an aspirin and slugging it back with some water. “God, my head is pounding. I think Faye’s right. We need a chill day by the lake. Minimal movement and lots of water.”
The lake is exactly what we all needed. The water is cool but not freezing and the sun is for once giving us a comfortable eighty degrees. Even the wildfire smoke seems to have dissipated for once.
After splashing around in the lake for a bit, we sit on some lounge chairs we found stuffed off to the side of the cabin.
Dragging them the small distance to the beach was worth the backache, and now I can’t imagine moving ever again.
My muscles are mush from being bent into a pretzel and thoroughly fucked last night.
But what I would give to do it all over again.
I’m so consumed on the flashbacks from yesterday that I can’t even focus on my book.
“What’s with that smile?” Iris asks, looking at me over her large sunglasses.
“What smile?” I ask, putting on another layer of sunscreen. I have a tendency to burn if I don’t apply it at regular intervals.
“The one that’s on your face like you have a dirty little secret.” She says, eyebrows raised.
Iris is always one to cut right through the bullshit.
“Fine. I was just thinking about last night.”
“Tell me more,” she insists, sipping on her water bottle.
I close my book and sit up. “It was probably the hottest night of my life. I fucked one of the scare actors. And let me tell you, he knows what the hell he’s doing.”
“So, do you think you’ll see him again?”
“I mean, I hope so. But he’ll probably be busy working.”
“Speaking of, is it weird we haven’t seen any scare actors yet today?” Faye asks from her chair.
“Ugh, why did you have to say that?” Stephanie groans. She finally came out with us after copious amounts of begging.
“Say what?”
“It’s like saying, ‘it’s a quiet night’, at a hospital. It practically brings the chaos right out,” she says.
“Well, isn’t that why we’re here? To get scared?”
“I thought we came here to spend time with each other,” Stephanie says back.
Sure enough, something atrocious pops out of the water in front of us, splashing us with the chilled water.
It’s a tentacle and it slithers straight out onto the beach, knocking over several chairs and sending us scrambling.
“Holy animatronic, Batman!” McKenzie squeals, clearly enjoying the spectacle. Never mind we’re being chased by this thing. And that’s when the rest of it emerges from the water.
All teeth, and eyes, and more tentacles.
It wraps one of its appendages around Faye’s ankle, pulling her towards the water’s edge.
“Oh, shit! Faye! Hold on!” I yell out, diving for her hands. My knees hit sand, scraping against the rough grain. Her fingers grip around my wrist, her manicured nails digging into my flesh for dear life.
The creature is strong, pulling her farther into the water.
“I don’t think this is an animatronic!” Faye yells as I pull with all my might to free her from its monstrous grasp.
My hands begin to slip so I dig my fingers into her flesh deeper, determined to stop her from being taken.
I’m so distracted trying to hold on that I don’t see the rogue tentacle until it’s too late.
The appendage wraps around my wrist, pulling my hand free from Faye’s. She slips farther into the water with a scream.
Audrey runs over and smashes the tentacle attached to me with a rock over and over again until it finally lets go of me and Faye.
She scrambles up on all fours and I help her get to standing.
On her ankle and leg there are suction marks, all dark red and raised along her skin.
Audrey drops the rock as the creature lets out a roar so fierce that my ears ring.
“Definitely not fake,” I say at almost a whisper because my brain can’t process what I’m seeing. We were just in that water not even a half an hour ago. Was that thing in there this whole time?
The three of us scramble backwards as the creature thrashes its many tentacles about in the water, searching for something or someone to grab onto.
It catches the leg of one of the chairs we were just lying in.
The thing breaks it in half throwing the bits haphazardly about.
It narrowly misses us, landing just a few inches in front of us with a loud smack.
“Run!” I say, realizing that we need to get the hell out of here.
We sprint out of its way, booking it to our cabin where Stephanie, Iris, and McKenzie have already barricaded themselves inside.
I bang on the front door with my entire forearm. “Let us in!”
The knob turns and the door flies open, letting us spill in. We’re soaking wet, breathless, and scared shitless. A puddle forms at my feet as shivers wrack through my body. I’m suddenly freezing.
I rush over to the window and pull the shudders wide open to get a good look at whatever monstrous creature that was, but when I look out over the water, there’s nothing. Not even a ripple in the water.
There’s no way all six of us hallucinated it, so what the hell? It couldn’t have just disappeared so quickly, could it?
“It’s gone!” I exclaim.
“What? Let me see,” Faye says, shouldering me out of the way with a limp in her step.
Her mouth drops open. “How?”
The rest of our friends crowd around the window, straining to see. We’re quiet, trying to process it.
“See, it was an animatronic, right?” McKenzie says first breaking the silence.
“… right,” Faye answers after a substantial beat. But as she limps over to her bed, I can see the doubt cast across her face.
I felt the tentacle myself. It didn’t feel robotic or manmade.
“I’m taking a shower,” I announce to no one in particular. I just need a moment to clear my head.
The shower is cold as fuck and more of a trickle than a steady stream of water.
I go as fast as I can, trying to scrub the feel of that creature from my memory, but no matter how hard I scrub, I can still feel it slithering and suctioning my skin.
My wrist still shows a visible red ring from where it gripped me.
There’s something about this place that has my mantra from my therapist not holding up.
There are cracks forming in believing it’s all fake.
Even with my experience with Hendricks last night had me wondering at times if there was something more to him.
He has an essence of darkness that clings to him like a second skin.
When I asked him to bite me, his fangs felt like they were real teeth.
Though, I thoroughly enjoyed being ravaged by him, it felt like maybe he was holding back or hiding something. And the way we left things…
My mind wanders and then that prickle at the back of my neck rouses me from my thoughts. Like I’m being watched. I glance around, listening to hear if someone else is in here. But the only sound is the paltry amount of water slapping on the concrete from the shower head.
The water suddenly sputters to a stop leaving me shivering, naked, and wet out here in the small showering station.
There are six stations total that have a flimsy sheet curtain pulled around each crooked shower head.
The floor is concrete with one lone drain positioned in the center.
But with the floor being uneven, the water pools at my feet.
Thankfully, I came prepared and wore my black flip-flops in here. Not today, athlete’s foot.
I quickly dry myself off and dress in a white tank and jean shorts. My hair gets tied up in a makeshift messy bun for now, wanting the wet pieces out of my face.
It’s when I leave the shower station that I notice wet footprints leading from the room to the path outside.