2.9

The lake water gushes in through his ears and nose, and Austin has to shut his eyes, because it’s so cold that it burns. He can feel skeletal hands grabbing at his feet and ankles, holding him down under the water and climbing higher up his legs the more he struggles to swim upwards towards the gaping hole in the ice. His head feels like it’s going to burst. He can feel another consciousness pushing against his own, vying for control. He pushes back weakly. He’s so tired. His arms and legs are frozen weights attached to his body, and he thinks of how good it might be to float away from this for a while. 

And then, he does.

The lake surfaces in Austin’s body, bobbing like a cork for a moment before levering itself up and out of the hole. It scrambles for purchase on the ice, trying to get enough of a grip to stand the body up and make it walk. No such luck. Instead, it drags Austin by his elbows, inching over the ice at a deliberate pace, the body’s legs trailing uselessly behind it. The body’s fingers are turning blue by the time it reaches the island.

Landis will arrive soon. The lake can feel the invisible cord that attaches Landis to it, and knows he is coming closer. Someone is with Landis, too - not just one of the ghosts, but another human. Maybe a belated sacrifice. It’s of no consequence. Now that Austin is here, having someone to bring the lake sacrifices don’t matter any more. It’s a lucky break, really. The lake has been biding its time for centuries, waiting for someone as powerful as Austin to come along, but it was starting to get impatient. It was starting to wonder if maybe Landis was its best option for a vessel, never mind the fact that Landis’ body would burn out in a matter of months, if not weeks. But Austin’s body - this body will last a year, at least. A year is long enough to find someone just as powerful to possess, if not someone more powerful. And certainly long enough to make many, many sacrifices.

But there will be time enough for those plans later. The lake struggles to Austin’s feet and

(hey)

wobbles unsteadily on the snowy shore of the island, getting used to the way it feels to have legs again. It starts slow, one foot gingerly in front of the other, and then it’s walking, briskly cutting through the scarce, barren trees to reach the cave at the center of the

(fuck are you doing?)

island.

The lake shakes Austin’s head like a dog, wet hair flopping back and forth before plastering itself back down to the body’s face and scalp. Some dredges of the old consciousness are making their way back in. They feel alarmed - though it’s hard to tell if it’s due to being puppeteered like this, or the evil radiating off of the cave. But as the lake steers Austin closer to the cave, it can feel tiny jumps of panic with every step, the body’s breath hitching in its throat. Austin is stronger than it expected. The last vessel, long before this, wasn’t able to break through again after they were taken. But that vessel still didn’t last long.

The entrance of the cave is blocked off by a pile of boulders, fallen in a rockslide. The lake knows this - it felt the rockslide happen, years ago, before Landis lived in the lake house. Landis has never been out to the island. He didn’t think - or didn’t know - that the island was part of the lake house’s property, and so there was no upkeep of it to be had. But none of that matters now. The lake grips Austin’s stiff fingers

(hey - wait)

around one of the boulders

(don’t)

and tugs it aside, hard. It doesn’t take long to clear them like this. The body’s fingers are scratched and bleeding by the end of it, and they sting - the lake has forgotten what pain feels like. It hasn’t felt pain in centuries. Being bound to a lake, it doesn’t feel much of anything. But the pain in Austin’s fingers is

(oh, fuck you!)

a small one. Easy to forget about. Especially once Austin’s body steps over the threshold of the cave.

The inside of the cave is thick with bad vibrations, ones that make Austin’s body

(STOP IT)

spasm with involuntary shudders. The protesting voice, the other consciousness pressing back against the lake’s, becomes

(GET OUT)

stronger for a second, like it might actually overtake the body again. But then it’s gone. Strange, but at least they’re not wasting time with a silly power struggle that Austin would lose anyway. There’s only so much time before Landis gets here and figures out what’s going on. And then the lake will have to kill him.

And after Landis, maybe the girl he’s with. After her - well, after her, maybe the lake will take Austin’s body on a jaunt through town and clear the whole place out. It’s been a long time since the lake has seen a town, or interacted with people who aren’t Landis. And maybe after that, Austin’s body will track down those who who bound the lake, their friends, their descendants, and torture them, one by one. Just for the fun of it. Just for the satisfaction of watching them try to understand why they’re being carved up by a stranger, their eyes big and stupid like cows waiting their turn at the slaughtering block. The lake knows just who it will start with.

The lake forces a laugh out through Austin’s lips, a horrible, dry, rattling sound that comes from deep in the body’s throat. The body’s teeth keep threatening to chatter, its jaw muscles spasming as the lake tries to stop it from happening. How annoying.

The cave goes a long way back, and slopes downwards, the space inside becoming tighter and tighter until Austin’s body finally has to get down on the ground and crawl, knees scraping against rock. It’s pitch dark, and quiet, the only sounds in the cave those of Austin’s shoes knocking rocks loose on the ground and his body’s shallow breathing. Animals lived in this cave once, but they’re all long gone. Some went too far into the cave and died from fear. Most just up and left.

The sloping tunnel gradually widens again, into a room just barely big enough for Austin to stand comfortably in. Even in the dark, the lake can pick out the form of the stone altar in the middle of the room. It knows the sigils etched on the stone by heart, every swirl in the lines of chalk, every smear of blood. It drags Austin’s hands through them sloppily, disrupting the carefully measured shapes and rubbing at them until they’re all just a big, powdery mess, and the lake can feel the magic binding it to the seal loosening, growing weaker by the second. How long has it been?

Landis is nearly to the lake house - his presence is closer, however faint it may be these days. The lake can tell that he is coming prepared to die. Wanting to die, even. And he’s done so much for the lake. So many sacrifices. There’s no reason why the lake shouldn’t oblige his death wish, and show him the way his friends felt when he strangled them and sunk them deep, deep underwater. The last caretaker was able to do it on her own, but the lake gets the feeling that Landis might need a little push.

Austin’s body squeezes itself back into the narrow tunnel, tucking its elbows in as it crawls back towards the entrance of the cave. It won’t do to be in here once Landis reaches the island. The lake wants to be waiting for him, right on the shore.