Chapter 4: 4. Ghost Stories

Island Lake was a glorified name for the oddly-shaped reservoir just outside of town. It was also the name of the conservation area which surrounded the small man-made lake. The name came from the collection of little islands in the eastern arm of the reservoir.

I'd been there dozens of times. Sometimes on school outings, sometimes with my family. There were lots of events happening there through the summer, and they even had an amphitheatre where bands would perform. There was also a place where you could rent canoes and pedal-boats.

There were a number of walking or hiking trails too, and the lake was almost entirely circled by a trail which was just over eight kilometres long. It didn't quite go all the way to the eastern end but thanks to a couple bridges the trail cut across two of those islands. I'd walked that trail once or twice. It was mostly wide flat ground, with just a few steep hills. People even biked on the trail.

What made this different from all the other times I'd been there was this was my first time visiting off-season and after dark. And what seemed like a wide flat easy trail in the daytime was a lot harder to navigate in the dark. Especially when the moon kept coming and going.

When the moon came out from behind the clouds it was bright enough to see clearly and we could pick up the pace, but our night-vision was ruined. Then a minute later the moon would disappear and everything went pitch-black again and I was stumbling along clinging to Kaylee and hoping she could see better than I could.

And unfortunately even though her glasses were cute they didn't bestow any sort of magical ability to see in the dark. So she was pretty much clinging to me and hoping I knew where we were going.

So far that was actually the best part of the whole adventure. Me and Kaylee were holding each other's hand, or we had our arms hooked together. I thought I could walk all night long as long as I got to do it next to the cute girl I'd been crushing on.

Fortunately we didn't have to walk all night long. It only took us about seventy-five minutes to reach our destination, which turned out to be on exactly the opposite side of the lake from where we started.

If we'd come in through the main entrance, we'd have been able to drive up a paved road then park in an unpaved lot next to the boat rental place, and we'd have been where we needed to be. The spot where we came through the gate was just north of the boat rental place, across about two hundred meters of water. It was like the narrowest spot on the lake, but there was no way across. So we had to walk like three and a half kilometres in the dark around the eastern end to get to the right spot.

Brooke and Marissa were more or less in the lead, with Paige right behind them. Me and Kaylee were a few paces back, and Miss Hawthorne was a couple paces behind us. She was so silent I actually had to check over my shoulder more than once to see if she was even still there.

Through the last leg of the walk, the other girls took turns telling the story. It was like listening to a ghost story, except instead of sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows we were trying to follow a trail that we could barely see and hoping not to stumble off the path into anything unpleasant.

"So if you ever look at Island Lake on a map, or better still a satellite photo," Brooke said quietly as she walked ahead of us, "Zoom in on the narrow part of the lake near where we parked. On an aerial photo you can actually see the road continues on under the water. You can draw a straight line from where we parked to the main entrance, and you'll see it's the very same road. It was flooded when they made the reservoir. There was a dip or hollow, where the road went through a little valley. And the lake's not all that deep, so that strip of road shows up in the pictures."

Paige took up the story, "Way back, long before they built the highway, that road was sort of the main road through this area. And in the late forties, there was a crash in that dip. A car broke down, it got stuck at the bottom of the hill. It was a young married couple. The wife stayed in the car while the husband got out and tried to get the car going again. The thing is, those hollows can fill up with fog when the weather's just right. Like sometimes it's really thick. Even nowadays, we get fog that's treacherous to drive in."

"And that's what happened," Kaylee said as she took up the tale. "The couple were stuck with their car, in a thick fog, when a truck came down the hill. The driver didn't see them till it was too late, he didn't have time to stop, and smashed at full speed into the broken down car. All three people were killed."

Marissa added with maybe a tiny bit too enthusiasm, "And now we're here to lay all three of 'em to rest."

"We're here to talk to them first Marissa," Brooke reminded the younger blonde.

The sixteen-year-old mumbled something about that being the boring part of the process, but she didn't argue the point.

And at long last the six of us finally reached the spot. Sort of.

The path took us a little ways past the amphitheatre, then branched off in a few different directions. We were at a crossroads with the boat rental place ahead of us, some woods to the left and right, and a beach area behind us.

Brooke said quietly, "The sightings have all been around here, but they seem to move about. We might need to spread out and search for spiritual energy."

Miss Hawthorne added, "Do be careful. There are at least two ponds in the woods on either side of us."

"Um," I asked nervously, "How do we look for spiritual energy?"

Paige suggested, "We should stay teamed-up. Like three teams of two?"

Kaylee said "I'll take Cass with me, we'll check out the area to the north, from here to the edge of the lake."

"Paige you're with me," Brooke decided. "We'll investigate around the boat-house and docks, where the old road used to pass through."

Miss Hawthorne smiled, "That means you're with me, Marissa. We'll investigate the woods south of the path."

I couldn't see the pout on the young blonde's face, but somehow I knew it was there. She wasn't pleased about being stuck paired up with our teacher.

Kaylee kept a tight grip on my hand as she led me away from the others. We left the main path and ended up on a smaller trail that curved around what I was pretty sure was one of the ponds Miss Hawthorne mentioned.

As we walked I half-whispered, "Why would the spirits be here, instead of where they died?"

"Where they died's underwater now," my cute companion replied just as quietly. "One of the theories is that's why they're restless? They've become detached from their normal place of rest, so they're trapped in between this world and the next."

That kind of made sense. We ended up on an even-smaller path that seemed to be heading into some dense trees. I was pretty sure the lake was around here somewhere too, but Kaylee seemed confident as she walked, so I kept walking with her.

"And how do we look for spiritual energy?" I asked in another half-whisper.

She gave my hand a gentle squeeze and replied, "Magic. I'm already using my Sight. You'll learn how to do it eventually. If there's any ghosts lurking around I'll be able to spot them. Usually they're just a fuzzy blob of energy? You might have heard the term 'orb'? Usually that's what we see, a fuzzy blob of light or dark."

My eyes were already flicking back and forth and I realized I was a lot more anxious than I originally thought. Like as happy as I was to be holding Kaylee's hand and having a nice quiet walk with her while we talked and stuff, it just kind of hit me that we were out late at night, alone in the woods, looking for real live ghosts.

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Well, not live ghosts, that's probably not a thing.

I kept my voice down and tried to sound relaxed as I asked, "What do we do if we find them?"

At that point me and Kaylee both heard a whistling sound from back the way we came. For a moment I froze as my blood went cold, but she turned around and started leading me the other way.

"We do that. That means someone found something," she whispered. "It sounded like Marissa, so she and May probably found our ghosts."

It took us about five or six minutes to meet up with the others. We got to Miss Hawthorne and Marissa the same time as Brooke and Paige. All six of us were standing on the edge of a little clearing that was just a dozen or so meters south of the main trail.

"You girls see that?" Marissa asked softly. Even when she was being quiet she still sounded like she was having fun.

The thing that kind of freaked me out was I could see what she was looking at. Like it wasn't that clear, but there were definitely two fuzzy dim outlines of light hovering around chest-height in the clearing.

All six of us watched quietly for a few moments, then Brooke whispered "Ok Kaylee, Marissa. You're up. Remember Marissa, communications first. Kaylee you take the lead."

The girl who'd been by my side all evening finally let go of my hand.

"Sorry Cass," she whispered. "Stay here with the others, you'll be fine. I have to take care of this, it'll just be a few minutes."

I gulped but nodded, and like she said I stayed put and watched.

Miss Hawthorne, Paige, and Brooke were standing together a few paces in front of me and to the right, so I had a clear view of the orb things, and of both Marissa and Kaylee as they slowly moved further to the left then started approaching the spirits.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out at this distance I couldn't really hear much of what was happening. The moon was still coming and going, which made it even harder to follow.

When the clearing lit up with moonlight I could see Kaylee and Marissa clearly, they were talking softly and presumably doing their magic stuff. Then the moon would disappear and plunge us all into darkness, and a few seconds later my eyes would adjust and I could see the two fuzzy orb thingies floating a meter or two from my friends.

After about five minutes of this, Kaylee looked over at the rest of us and shook her head. She spoke just loud enough for us to hear her.

"I don't think they're sentient. They talk but they're not communicating, just replaying events. Like they're stuck in a loop."

Brooke sighed, "Then the best thing to do is let them rest."

The big grin on Marissa's face told me what that meant, but I had no idea how they'd actually do it.

She and Kaylee got back to work, and this time I felt a little chill in the air as the two witches started doing their thing. Both girls raised their hands up and outwards towards the two orbs, and I could even see some very faint purplish glow around their fingers. I figured that was the actual magic stuff, like I saw when Paige unlocked the gate.

The process continued for a while and I had no idea how long it was going to take but I wasn't going to be the new girl who interrupted a magical ritual to ask when it'd be over. The other three witches continued to watch in silence, they all looked interested but none seemed worried so I figured this was how the whole process was supposed to happen.

The moon came out and lit up the clearing again, then it vanished once more and everything was dark. I blinked to try and get my eyes adjusted so I wouldn't miss anything, and that's when I was just slightly startled half to death by the guy who'd emerged from the trees to stand next to me.

"Sorry miss," he whispered, but he was smiling at how I jumped. "What's going on? What are you young ladies up to?"

I knew the whole witch thing was secret, and I wasn't sure I should mention the ghost stuff either, so I whispered back "Uh, it's a school thing? Extracurricular activity."

I figured he was probably a hiker or something, maybe he snuck into the park thinking he could hike around and have the place to himself. He didn't look dangerous, like he definitely wasn't here to drink or do drugs or anything like that.

For one thing he looked like he was in his forties. He was fit though, clean-shaved, and he was wearing brown trousers and a button-down jacket of some kind. He even wore a tie which I found really unusual. He had an odd-looking tweed cap on, but he took that off and scratched the back of his head as he watched Kaylee and Marissa for a few moments.

"Mighty strange school outing if you ask me," he whispered. He looked at me again and said quietly, "Name's Henry by the way. I don't suppose you could tell me which way's town? I'm all turned around, reckon I'm a bit lost."

"Hi Henry," I replied quietly. "I'm Cass. Uh, Cassandra. And town is..."

I frowned and looked around to get my bearings before I continued, "I'm assuming you're on foot? So if you go that way you'll find the main trail. Turn left and just stay on the trail. It'll take you around the south end of the lake, then when you come up on the west side you'll see the town. You can't miss it."

He smiled, "Thank you miss Cassandra, much obliged. I've been on foot since my truck got all smashed up. I've been trying to find someplace with a telephone so I can call for help."

With that he put his cap back on and disappeared back into the trees.

Like.

He literally disappeared.

I found myself staring at the spot where he vanished, and my whole body shivered as chills ran up and down my spine.