A Night at the Lake [Open] [2-3 people; no entering after first page]

The lake had a pristine otherwordlyness to it at night, a time where all lights shied away from it but the paleness of the moon. It was invisible, camouflaged the glossy black of the sky, capable of swallowing one up soundlessly in the quiet forest night. It was a gentle giant, and that's how Madison saw it, as a sentient creature that could kill her in an instant but welcome her in the next. She walked across the cold, rocky beach, sandals in hand and a lantern in the other, a soft aura surrounding her, protecting her from what lurked outside. To anyone else, it would be a silent night as any other, devoid of many creatures save for dancing gnats and sleepless reptiles. To Madison, hell crawled around the dark scene in forms too numerous and repulsive to conceive.

The girl had made a habit of visiting the lake at dawn. It was a guilty idea to her, but the lake was her friend, one of few. She'd see it at first light and watch its sparkling form under a violet sky of fading stars, the waves lapping each other like kittens in a litter. That day, however, she came a tad early. Two hours early. The clock had stricken 4 when the girl decided to leave and only the orange streetlamps had touched the campus of Beata Academy. It wasn't hard to get out. The security had all went home by then.

She didn't know why she decided to come during the dark. The words of her mentor Charlotte Redwaltz projected themselves in front of her during the journey, whenever she decided that what she was doing was stupid. Charlotte implored she continue to show her monsters who their maker was, continue to present herself in front of them. She had seen their intrigue grow, their wide eyes and ears and mouths, had seen the hesitant approaches they gave her when the sun set and they latched to her bedroom window. They showed it at the lake, silent under the metronomic sloshing of the water against the rocky shore. Madison spied a dozen figures stand and look at her like meerkats patrolling, straight up and soundless, a thousand creatures of all shapes and sizes looking, staring.

But to anyone else, there was nothing.

The girl sat down at the brink of the cold water, placing her feet in the chilly wade and her shoes beside her. The lake would occasionally reach up and lap at the edge of her skirt, but she didn't seem to mind, setting the lantern next to her and keeping her eyes straight. The lake was beautiful. What she could see in the pale moonlight was beautiful.

The girl took a breath, reached down, and turned off the lantern.

Hunter was guided out of bed by the ringing in his own ears. The early morning was still dark, and he did not expect a single human being to be awake. Another nightmare had struck him. He was sick of this bullshit, he felt trapped, completely under his mother's control. It affected him so deeply, but he hid it so well. Every time he spoke out of turn, mentioned Julie, mentioned the accident- because, as much as she didn't want it to be, that's what it was- it was another bruise, another scar. It was easy to hide. He could just blame it on his own hands. Self inflicted wounds were, of course, not below him, and today was no exception as a breeze whipped his hair heading into the forest. He felt the searing sensation of his trembling, uncontrolled hands against his forearms. He wasn't quite aware of what he was doing until he finally registered the pain and dropped his hands in his hoodie pocket, fumbling for Julie's gloves. He shoved them on and continued his march to god-knows-where.

His auburn mane was clear in the half-light as he broke from the trail and came upon the lake. He could see a girl there, but he didn't give a damn. He just needed to let the surge of activity in his head slow. He was too weak and tired to charm her, his usual first impression, so he settled for collapsing at the edge of the water with his head in his hands. "'M sorry. Very tired. Trying not to lose my effing mind. Hunter. Hi."

This was a bad idea. He shouldn't have come out into the forest at this time, and he shouldn't have chosen not to sleep, but he discovered a new part of his gift and was really tempted to try it out. He discovered earlier in the day that he actually had night vision. While he could have turned off the lights in his dorm and tested it out that way, it wasn't the same. So he decided to come out to the forest, but he had ended up staying up waiting for guards and others to leave so he wouldn't get in trouble doing this. Though he might have dozed slightly when the time had came for him to be able to get out the dorm.

He didn't know why he found it exciting, or well just a little exciting that he could see in the night time without a flashlight or some other light, but he found himself running slightly to escape the lights of the campus. As soon as he entered the forest he activated his gift, and took a look around. It was kind of cool. It looked pretty much the same as it did during the day, but everything looked a tad duller. Though it was a bit disappointing because it wasn't what he expected everything to look like in the shroud of darkness, but it was still useful. He continued on into the forest looking around at various things just getting an idea of what every thing looked like, then he remembered the lake. What would that look like? Dorian worked his way past all of the trees and over to the lake only to discover to other students.

He approached them normal, making noises to tell them that someone was there. He didn't want to startle them. "Well it looked like a few of us had the same idea. That's kind of cool." He remarked with a friendly smile on his face though that might not be able to see it too well.

Madison's heartbeat thudded in her ears. She was still on the lake shore, non-responsive to any words that were thrown her way. Her heartbeat, it pulsed over the lake, over the sounds that exuded from the many groans and gargles from the creatures around her. They sniffed, they murmured, they spoke; some in English, some in a language that sounded like English, as if they learned to mimic her speech. In that they stuttered, paused and went back on their gibberish as claws traced gently over her body, probing at her arms and grasping at her face. The girl squeezed her eyes tighter, but it was only darker behind her eyelids; opening them once more, she looked out upon the lake and saw a figure, amongst all the other swimming figures, a slender monster seemingly walking on the water. When her eyes flicked, it stayed in the center, swimming along with her vision as if it was on her eyes. It stood out, it's red gaze, and the haphazardly movements of the creatures around her became harder, more ferocious, more receptive to the red glow that seemed to curve its way into every corner of the forest, a dark red glow. Madison's eyes shot farther open, and though she tried to control them, a few of the creatures began to scratch at her, and her fingers flicked the lantern on. Immediately, the hallucinations around her vanished, shrinking back into the darkness, and the wide-eyed girl brought her legs closer into the light.

There were people there. She had only ever had one person approach her in her time visiting the lake, the boy named Myles that she hadn't talked to since they both checked out of the infirmary. Now there were two. "...what s--erm, what'd you...say?" The words she spoke were nothing more than jumbles of nervous, offguard sounds. Did they say anything to begin with? How long had they been there? Did she look crazy?

Creatures lingered at the edge of the light as she spoke to the strangers, almost scratching at the invisible wall, and she wondered if the people that approached her were even real. They had a human quality to them, however, and her hallucinations always lost their human quality in some shape or form. These people were whole. She'd know for sure when they spoke.

Hunter rubbed his tired eyes, moaning in frustration. "Sorry if I mumble, I had a rough effin' night." His voice was slurred and scratchy from sleep and anxiety. "I feel like a goddamn train hit me. I dunno, 'm just tired." He couldn't quite control what came out of his mouth, his head was thumping too hard to maintain a filter. He looked up with weak brown eyes at the girl and the boy. "I'm Hunter, I'm not usually this mopey." Her forced a tiny smile at them both, his fists tight and shaky. He ignored it completely.

Sorry for lateness I've been without a computer

Well it didn't seem that Dorian's goal of not startling the two didn't go quite right. It still seemed he had managed to scare the girl somewhat. She did seem distracted when he first approached, maybe he should have been a bit more obvious about his appearance. "Oh I just find it interesting that three of us decided to come out to the lake at basically the same time." He said sort of rephrasing himself.

His attention was turned to the boy for a moment as he spoke. It did seem like this guy wasn't really in good shape, but there wasn't anything he could do about that. After all he could only bend darkness to his will, not heal. Amber eyes watched as the boy ignored his tiredness and offered to start a friendly chat with them. Dorian found that a bit interesting. "My name is Dorian, it's a pleasure to meet you both." It seemed the was the only one out here that wasn't having a rough night.

Madison was about to say that she too wasn't so mopey either. That she wasn't so cripplingly unable to talk. The blue-eyed girl had eyes as transparent as the unsteadiness of her voice, however; her irises were like perpetually rippling lakes, always having stones tossed in them, always unstable and unstill. So she didn't, electing to instead smile unnaturally and swing her legs around stiffly, staying in the light. "Madison...--Iii'm, I'm Madison." Why were these people at her lake? Were they going to be regulars? It was loneliness that made the process of visiting it so enjoyable, though it was loneliness that she stewed in constantly. She had to stop being such a hermit.

Hunter rubbed his eyes tiredly, trying to shake the feeling of anxiety. This was not the kind of first impression he wanted in any case. So much for an image. He looked up at Madison, smiling warmly. Maybe a distraction would help, but cool nonchalance was going out the window. He didn't have patience for it. "Hey, you okay? You look pretty shaken up..." His voice trailed off and he started picking at the grass. He was still waking up and his heart was slowing down. He didn't want to seem uninterested, but he was really sluggish.

Neither one of them seemed okay in his opinion. They both looked like something happened to unnerve them. Dorian frowned. He could only guess they both came out here to escape something while he was out here to test some part of his gift. He wasn't exactly fitting the mood that these two seemed to be setting. Moving around he sat down next to the two. He would have asked something to try and get a conversation going, but it would be kind of rude of him to interrupt the small conversation Hunter already started. Besides he wanted to know if Madison was alright as well.

"I'm--I'm fine, I..." Madison brought herself tighter into the bubble of light and looked around, at the spectators bearing down on her like she was the center of a coliseum. Around the two people, Dorian and Hunter, were the eyes and faces and snarls of the beings who caught her attention, big, tall, short, angry, deformed beings. She didn't want to freak them out. She was too tired to explain herself, anyway. "It's late, is all. You scared me." The girl began to breathe normally, to try to keep a normal face, though the more she attempted the more it seemed to stray unnaturally; her smile grew long and stiff, and she abandoned it too quickly as she cast her face towards the lake. A breeze had caught, causing ripples over the waves and a gentle murmur through the trees. She looked over the waters with a brief moment of calm. The moment ended when a familiar face hovered motionlessly over the lake.

It was Her Mother. Her tattered dress rippled long over her skeletal, long body, her fingers tapping on each other as crimson eyes burned over the dark waves.

The girl's pallid horror returned to her face and her lips went dry.

As Madison's face went white with horror, alarm bells went off in Hunter's head. He didn't like that look. He followed her eyes out to the center of the lake, but he couldn't find a damn thing. He knew better than to assume she was crazy. Her gift probably went deeper than he could see. His fingertips grazed his other wrist, ready to pull off his glove in case of an emergency. "I-is everything okay? What do you see?" He looked at Dorian, nodding his head towards the lake. Maybe he saw something that Hunter couldn't.

He stood taller, his heart thumping. Was there danger? I'm not scared.


"Who's there?!" Hunter called

As soon as the other two freaked out, Dorian turned his head in the direction of the seemingly horrible thing that had them both so worked up. But there wasn't anything there. He could see perfectly clearly in the darkness. Dorian first looked to the spot they were both looking at, but saw nothing slowly he moved his gaze outward looking for any slight movement. He could feel the shadows wanting to crawl off his back and last out at something from how on edge everyone else was, but there wasn't anything there, unless she was seeing something they couldn't see. "There isn't anything there. At least that I can see." He didn't want to say something wasn't there and have it be there for someone else due to gifts. His golden yellow eyes turned back to the girl. "I'm guessing what you are seeing has to do with you gift?"

Madison nodded wordlessly to Dorian, swallowing silently, her tongue rolling around her mouth and over her lips. It seemed that she was no longer able to pretend everything was all right, like she wasn't an insane person seeing things others can't see. The--..um, well, dark--darkness has... people. I see--" the figure seemed to become more real as she stuttered, like it was not a hallucination. Where the other beings seemed to squiggle in and out of her view like a smudge across her eye, this one, she was solid. Her Mother. Madison latched her hand onto her lantern, and it began to clatter as her fingers shook. "There's people. Everywhere. We're gonna--we're gonna die if we stay, let's...let's go." So much for making friends. the figute on the water had begun to float closer. She didn't seem to move, but she was still closer.

Madison stood, taking her shoes in her other hand. The hallucinations around him seemed to perk.

Hunter's breath caught up in his throat. He felt like he was gonna throw up. His blue gloves came off instantly and were shoved in his pocket. The auburn-haired boy rubbed his hands together, smoke and flames sputtering from between them. His hands were like hot coals as he thrust them in front of him, backing away from the lake. "So here's the deal: I still can't see them," he panted, "So if you scream, somebody's gonna get burned when I lose my shit. Don't scare me until it's logical to be scared, a'ight?" He moved faster, not turning his back on the lake. In a pinch, he could get himself out alive. That didn't mean he wanted to leave these two stranded in the woods. He started flinching at every tiny noise, wondering exactly what Madison saw and when he would be able to see it. He was starting to get a little pissed off. He couldn't see a thing, he wasn't in control of the situation, and he was overtired. It wasn't a good combo for anyone involved.