The Boy in the Lake

At twenty-eight, I was waiting tables at a restaurant when a lawyer in a black suit suddenly stepped in front of me and handed me an inheritance document worth fifty million dollars.

It was left by a grandfather I had never once met. I thought maybe fate was finally cutting me a break that my four-year-old son Leo and I could finally live like normal people.

But that night, Leo clutched my leg with both arms, pointed at a water stain that had appeared out of nowhere on the ceiling, and sobbed like his heart was breaking: "Mommy, that boy the one soaking wet he says if we take the money, we're both going to die"

I snapped my head up. A single drop of ice-cold water fell and hit me right between the eyes.

It was ten o'clock at night. The restaurant had just closed.

I was rubbing my aching back, getting ready to haul out the last bucket of kitchen slop.

A man with a briefcase and gold-rimmed glasses appeared in the back kitchen doorway, blocking my path.

"Ashley Miller?"

He held out a business card. It had the name of some high-end law firm printed on it.

I took a cautious step back, still gripping my dirty rag.

"You've got the wrong person. I need to get back to work."

"Theodore Miller passed away three days ago." The lawyer pushed his glasses up, his expression blank. "He owned an estate in the western suburbs and a fifty-million-dollar trust fund. Under the terms of his will, you are the sole legal heiress."

My head started buzzing.

Theodore Miller.

The old man who thought my mom wasn't good enough, who pressured my dad into divorcing her, and who slowly drove her into depression until it killed her.

I had never laid eyes on him my entire life.

All I remembered was my mom on her deathbed, gripping my hand so tight her bony fingers left marks in my skin.

"Ashy, don't touch a single thing from the Miller family. Not one cent. It's dirty. It destroys people."

I took a slow, deep breath and threw the rag into the sink.

"I don't know anyone named Theodore Miller. I don't want the money. Please leave."

The lawyer didn't look surprised. He pulled a thick stack of documents from his bag and pressed it into my arms.

"Ms. Miller, I've already signed on your behalf. Theodore Miller's instructions were clear you have to accept this. Everything goes into effect tomorrow."

He didn't give me a chance to argue. He turned and walked away, disappearing into the dark.

I stood there holding the heavy documents, my hands and feet gone cold.

By the time I got back to the basement apartment I rented, it was almost midnight.

The place never got any sunlight. The air always smelled faintly of mold.

My four-year-old, Leo, was sitting quietly on the fold-out bed, playing with a beat-up Ultraman toy.

When he saw me come in, he scrambled off the bed on his little legs and threw himself into my arms.

"Mommy, you're home!"

I held him tight, breathing in the faint milky smell of him, and felt the strange dread in my chest ease just a little.

I tossed the documents onto the table and went to heat up some water so Leo could wash his face.

But the moment I turned around, Leo screamed.

"Ahhh!"

It was pure terror in his voice. It hit me like a needle straight to the eardrum.

I spun around.

Leo was staring up at the ceiling, his little finger pointing, his whole body shaking like a leaf.

"Mommy water so much water"

I looked where he was pointing.

Sometime in the last few minutes, a large dark-yellow water stain had spread across the ceiling of the basement.

It was still growing, like something was slowly seeping through from above.

Drip.

A drop of water hit the floor near Leo's feet.

Leo suddenly threw his arms around my leg and buried his face in my pants, his voice going strange and high:

"Mommy, that boy is crying He says he's so cold He says if we take the money, we're both going to die"

Every hair on my body stood up.

Above the basement was the building's garden courtyard. There were no water pipes up there.

Where was the water coming from? What boy?

I scooped Leo up into my arms, my voice shaking. "Leo, don't scare me like that. What boy?"

Leo squeezed his eyes shut, tears streaming down his face, his little fists twisting tight into my collar.

"The boy in the school uniform he's soaking wet he's standing right behind you"

My breath stopped.

A wave of cold hit my back deep, bone-level cold, like someone had just been pulled out of icy water and was standing pressed against my spine.

Run.

That was the only thought in my head.

I didn't even stop to change my clothes. I grabbed my phone and ID card off the table, held Leo tight against my chest, and ran.

The hallway lights in the basement corridor flickered on and off.

I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears like a drum.

Drip. Drip.

The sound of water hitting the floor followed right behind me.

I didn't look back. I ran like I'd lost my mind, out of the basement and onto the street.

The streets were deserted at this hour. A cold gust of wind hit me, and I realized my clothes were soaked through with sweat.

Leo was slumped against my shoulder, no longer crying, but her small body was still trembling uncontrollably.

I pulled out my phone to call a ride.

The screen had barely lit up when an unknown number came through.

My hand jerked. I answered.

A man's voice came through the line low and threatening.

"Ashley. That was fast."

My blood ran cold.

It was my cousin from my uncle's side of the family, Mason Miller.

Years ago, when my mom and I were thrown out of the Miller family, Mason had been right there, watching with a smirk on his face like it was entertainment.

"Mason. What do you want?" I said through gritted teeth.

"What do I want? You're a bastard child. What gives you the right to claim fifty million from Grandpa's estate?" He let out a cold laugh. "I'm telling you hand over that document, or I promise neither you nor that little bastard of yours makes it through tonight."

"I don't want the inheritance! Split it among yourselves!"

"Cut the crap! You already signed it legally, you're the heiress now! Where are you? I'm coming to find you right now!"

I hung up and immediately powered off my phone.

We couldn't stay here.

The Miller family had deep roots in this city, and Mason was the kind of guy who didn't play by any rules. He kept a crew of hired muscle on his payroll.

If he found us, Leo and I were finished.

I held Leo close and flagged down a taxi with its light on at the curb.

"To the train station as fast as you can!"

The driver was a middle-aged man. One look at my face and he didn't ask a single question he just floored it.

The city lights blurred past the window.

I let out a shaky breath and looked down at Leo.

He was staring straight at the window, wide eyes fixed on the glass.

"Leo? What's wrong?" I reached up and touched his head.

He turned to look at me.

His eyes were completely blank. Distant.

That was not the look of a four-year-old.

He opened his mouth. What came out was low, hoarse rough in a way that didn't belong to a child's voice at all.

"He's coming after us."

My whole body went cold.

"Leo, say something don't scare Mommy like that!" I grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

No response. He just turned back to the window and stared.

I followed his gaze.

In the rearview mirror, a black SUV was tailing us like a predator locked onto prey.

The high beams were blinding.

It was Mason's car.

"He's chasing us please, drive faster!" I shouted.

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror and swore under his breath.

"What is this, some kind of movie? Hold on tight!"

The cab tore through the empty streets.

But the SUV was faster. It was closing in.

Bang.

The SUV slammed into our rear bumper.

The impact threw me forward. I threw my arms around Leo and held on.

The driver panicked. He yanked the wheel, and the cab skidded off the road and crashed into the landscaped median, screeching to a stop.

Before I could even catch my breath, the door was ripped open from outside.

Mason stood there thick-necked, heavy-faced, gripping a baseball bat. Two built guys flanked him from behind.

"Go ahead and run! Keep running!"

He grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged me out of the car.

"Mommy!" Leo screamed from inside.

I fought back as hard as I could and sank my teeth into Mason's wrist.

"You little bitch!" He backhanded me across the face. Stars exploded in my vision. I tasted blood at the corner of my mouth.

The two men shoved into the car and yanked Leo out by force.

"Don't touch my son!" I lunged at them like a woman possessed and Mason drove his boot into my stomach. I crumpled to the ground, gasping.

The driver scrambled out of the car and bolted. He wasn't going to stick around for this.

Mason crouched down and grabbed my hair again, wrenching my head up to face him.

"Ashley. You want to do this the hard way? Fine. Where's the document?"

"I don't have it I left it at home!" I lied, struggling to breathe.

Mason let out a cold laugh and pulled the inheritance document from his jacket pocket, slapping it against my face.

"You think I'm blind? Back at the basement door, didn't I see this drop right on the floor?"

My stomach dropped.

I'd been running too fast. It must have slipped out.

"Since I've got the document, you're coming with me tonight to sign the transfer agreement." Mason straightened up and jerked his chin at the two men. "Put them in the car."

I was shoved into the back seat of the SUV.

Leo was huddled against me, trembling so hard he couldn't even cry.

Mason dropped into the passenger seat and lit a cigarette.

"Drive. West Estate."

My head snapped up.

"Why go there? You just need to sign the papers anywhere works!"

Mason blew out a slow ring of smoke and turned to look at me. There was something unsettling in his eyes a strange, almost gleeful excitement.

"Grandpa added a condition to the will. The transfer agreement has to be signed at the old house on the estate. In front of his portrait."

He let out a cold laugh.

"Miserable old man, still making trouble from the grave."

The car pulled out and headed west.

The sharp smell of cigarette smoke filled the cabin.

I held Leo tight, my mind racing, trying to figure out how to get us out of this.

Then I felt something cold on the back of my hand.

A single drop of water.

I blinked and looked up at the roof of the car.

No leak.

But I could feel it clearly the temperature inside the car was dropping fast.

The air that had been stuffy and warm just moments ago now felt like the inside of a freezer.

Leo suddenly grabbed my hand.

His fingers were ice cold. The kind of cold that has no life in it at all.

He lifted his head and looked at Mason in the front seat. Slowly, the corners of his mouth pulled back into a smile wide, wrong, deeply unsettling.

Then he spoke in that same rough, cracking voice:

"Mason. Long time no see."

The SUV lurched sideways, nearly slamming into the guardrail.

The driver wrestled the wheel with both hands, his voice shaking. "Mason who the hell just said that?"

The cigarette slipped from Mason's fingers and landed in his lap. He yelped and shot upright.

He spun around, eyes locked on me and Leo.

"Ashley, what the f**k are you pulling?!"

I pressed my hand over Leo's mouth, my whole body trembling.

"It wasn't me! I didn't say anything!"

Mason's face had gone white. For just a second, I saw something flash through his eyes raw, genuine fear.

He stared at Leo like he was looking at something that shouldn't exist.

"Mason." The voice came again. "Don't you remember? The lake at West Estate. The water was so cold."

Leo's mouth hadn't moved.

But the words rang through the car, clear and unmistakable coming from everywhere at once, from all four walls, from the air itself.

Then, without any warning, rain exploded against the windows.

A downpour out of nowhere. The wipers maxed out couldn't cut through it. The road ahead disappeared.

"Mason, something's wrong with this rain there's fog everywhere, I can't see a damn thing!" The driver hit the brakes.

The car stopped on the winding mountain road that led to the West Estate.

Everything outside was black. The headlights hit a wall of thick white fog and bounced back, casting a pale, sickly glow.

The temperature kept dropping. A thin layer of frost crept across the inside of the windows.

Drip.

A drop of water hit the top of Mason's head.

He reached up and ran a hand through his hair. When he pulled it back, his palm was smeared with dark, murky water.

"What the is this car leaking?!"

The words had barely left his mouth when I looked down. The floor mats were soaked. Muddy water had pooled at our feet without either of us noticing, and it was rising slow and steady, carrying the rotten, weedy stench of a lake bottom.

"Get out! Everyone out!"

Mason threw himself at the door.

It didn't move.

He shoved harder. Then harder. The door held like it had been welded shut. He couldn't budge it.

The two men up front panicked, slamming their fists against the windows.

"Help! Something's wrong the doors won't open!"

The water rose fast. In seconds it was over our ankles.

I pulled Leo up onto the seat with me, pressing back as far as I could go.

Leo's eyes opened.

The whites were gone. His eyes were completely black solid, lightless, like two holes in his face.

He stared straight at Mason, and when he spoke, his voice was soaked in something ancient and hateful.

"Mason. When you held me under the water back then I fought just like this."

Mason broke.

He ripped a knife from his waistband, jabbed it toward Leo, and screamed.

"Noah Miller! Don't you dare try to scare me! You were a bastard you never belonged in this family! I killed you once, and I can do it again!"

Noah Miller.

Something detonated in my mind.

I remembered.

Years ago more than a decade there had been an illegitimate son in the family. My uncle had fathered him with another woman. The boy had been brought to live with us eventually, but not long after, word came that he'd drowned in the lake at West Estate.

An accident, they said.

He'd been fifteen years old.

Turns out, it wasn't an accident.

Mason had killed him!