Chapter 1
Silent and devoid of any color, stands The Lakeside House, forever staring at a distance with vacant eyes that never really see. Its walls have been through years of assaults. From calamities to time, The Lakeside House has endured everything and will continue to endure many such events until someone decides to finally take it down and put it to rest. Whoever live in the house live there unwillingly. They have nowhere else to go or their homes are too far away to access daily.
Olivia Torres falls in the first category. She has nowhere else to go, no other place to call home, and not a soul in this world to call family. She lives in The Lakeside House as a permanent resident who may never walk out.
1
Olivia’s eyes fly open with a start. Solid darkness greets her like a straight punch in the gut. She blows out a breath, not again. This has been going on for the last three days. She wakes up at exactly 3 am and does not go back to sleep again. Tonight without looking at the clock, she knows that it is striking the witch hour. But tonight is not like any other night. The silence seems different. The darkness seems different. Even the sound seems different. Olivia can feel an echoing stillness around and then she remembers the reason. She is home alone. Or rather she is alone in the five story building and the world has locked itself down.
A mild gust of wind ruffles the window blinds, parting it slightly, giving a quick view of the silent lake, sitting just out side the aging building. The sight, even though for a brief moment, pokes a needle of terror in Olivia’s heart. She springs from her bed, stumbling toward the window to take a better view, a longer one perhaps if she dares.
The lake sits still and silent like it always does. Nothing moves its water. Be it rain. Be it storm. Be it a pebble thrown carelessly at it. The water remains unmoving and silent. Often Olivia feels like screaming at it, urging it to move, to show some life. Since the day, she has come to live in The Lakeside House, she has only looked at the motionless water, forever frozen in time.
But a moment ago, Olivia has seen something crawling over the lake, something dark and greenish. A lot like, she halts for a moment, thinking hard, trying to grapple the right word…a lot like a mass of moss. A mass of moss? Olivia immediately cringes at the line her thought is taking. Moss does not crawl, she tells herself in the same firm and rigid voice, she uses to scold students for not doing their homework. She has been too alone for too long.
The quiet of the night begins to settle upon her soul like a heavy brick. The stillness she has experienced upon waking up, now sits inside her like an immense beast, ready to squash her with its weight.
A thin curtain of cloud slithers by the sky like a worm, veiling the stars for a fraction of second. Darkness sweeps off the lake and its surrounding area and once again, the still water stirs. No, the still water remains still, the layer of moss above the water writhes as if in intense pain. The sudden movement makes Olivia recall her sister’s child birth. Miranda writhed with similar way while giving birth to her daughter. Icy air creeps through the window, swiftly filling the room, making it difficult to breath.
Olivia stands staring at the lake and its moss like a frozen mannequin, an unrealistic question forms in her mind and refuses to fade away. Is the moss giving birth to something? The wall clock ticks in the background, counting minutes as if announcing the arrival of a showdown. And the moss writhes again. This time it gives out a mournful cry as well.
