A Dead Body!

Awakening in the familiar confines of my dormitory, a gentle calm washed over me. The words of Lance, assuring me of the baby's safety, nestled within me like a secret ember of joy. Ridiculous, right? I chastised myself with a light slap to the cheek, trying to quell the burgeoning warmth. Regardless of the turmoil, regaining my sense of normalcy—and taste—felt like a victory.

In the days that followed, tranquility prevailed. The spectral presence within seemed to slumber, granting me a semblance of the ordinary life I yearned for. However, the peace was a fragile veneer, soon to be shattered.

The day the nightmare revisited was radiant, the sun casting a golden glow over the early morning. Eager to embrace the day, I rallied Anna and Jenny for a run, leaving our slumber-loving roommate, Yamna, behind. Our laughter mingled with the crisp air, spirits high as we made our way to the environmental school.

Here, it's necessary to paint a picture of our campus landscape: nestled between an academic building and a dormitory cluster lies a seldom-traveled road, skirting a serene, yet eerily still, medium-sized lake.

Having completed our circuit, we stretched beside the lake, basking in the purity of the morning. "What fresh air!" Anna exclaimed, embracing the day.

As I knelt to tie my shoelaces, my keys slipped from my pocket, tumbling down the slope towards the water. Panic set in; those keys were my lifeline, unlocking more than just doors. Despite warnings of the water's treacherous depth, desperation led me to chase after them.

Jenny's voice, laced with concern, called out to me, but my focus was singular—retrieve the keys at all costs. My fingers grazed the keyring, victory within reach, when an unexpected grasp froze me in place.

What on earth?

A veil of mist hovered over the water's surface, obscuring the culprit. I swiped at the air, heart pounding, as the fog cleared to reveal the astonishing truth—a hand had emerged from the depths, firmly clasping my wrist. My eyes widened in shock at the realization that the still waters of our serene lake harbored a touch from beyond.

In the eerie stillness of the morning, the hand that emerged from the depths was a grotesque sight, its pallid, swollen flesh adorned with blisters oozing yellow pus—an image of decay that chilled the soul. My gaze, drawn downwards, settled on an orb ensnared in darkness, a ghastly revelation awaited as the murky veil of hair parted to reveal its truth—a human head.

Frozen in horror, my body trembled uncontrollably, the scene before me oscillating between a nightmarish blur and a terrifying clarity. The grip on my wrist felt like a chain binding me to the macabre tableau, my eyes fixated on the head as it eerily began to move, its sanguine halo spreading into the lake's troubled waters.

The dispersing locks of hair, which might have once framed a face in ethereal beauty, now served as a grim prelude to horror. The face, ravaged beyond recognition, bore eyes devoid of life, gaping voids from which blood tears seemed to weep. And then, with a voice that clawed at the very edges of the grave, it spoke my name, "Emma, I...died...so miserably..."

That moment suspended all sensation, leaving me adrift in a void until the piercing screams of Jenny and Anna tethered me back to reality.

The discovery of a corpse in the tranquil lake of our school spiraled into chaos. Despite the school's efforts to contain the news, the digital tendrils of social media ensnared the truth, spreading it like wildfire among the student body.

As the unfortunate soul to first witness this grim tableau, I found myself ensnared in a web of procedural necessity, my statement a mere formality amidst the swirling rumors.

Stunned, with Jenny and Anna offering their trembling support, the police eventually deemed me too shock-stricken to remain. Upon my return to the sanctuary of my dormitory, I rushed to the faucet, desperate to scrub away the visceral memory that clung to my skin—a relentless reminder of the cold, lifeless touch that had marred my being.

Haunted by the encounter, the memory of that decayed grasp and the tragic plea from the depths would forever linger, a ghostly imprint on my soul, challenging the very essence of reality and romance in a world where the two realms tragically intertwined.

The tragic demise of the girl sent ripples of dread through the heart of the campus. The police, in their solemn duty, launched a salvage operation that bore witness to the horror: only her head and a fragment of her arm were recovered, the rest of her body swallowed by the lake's murky depths. The sight was harrowing, her head, though long submerged, still wept blood from its severed edge, as if in a macabre refusal to accept death's finality.

This girl, Cristina, was a familiar face within the tapestry of our academic lives. Our major, segmented into quartets for administrative ease, often gathered us in a single room, weaving a network of acquaintanceship among us. My interactions with Cristina were fleeting, yet her brutal end stirred a well of sorrow within me, a lament for a life extinguished too soon.

Slumped in despair, Cristina's last words to me echoed endlessly in my mind: "Jessie, I died miserably." What message was she trying to convey from beyond the grave? The notion of her spirit reaching out, seeking solace or justice, chilled me to the bone, casting shadows over the sunlit world outside.

Yamna, spared from the day's horror, became our beacon, seeking leave on our behalf and arranging sessions with a counselor. The weight of a classmate's untimely departure hung heavy on us all, a collective mourning for a soul lost from our ranks.

Stepping into the corridor for a moment's reprieve, I felt the weight of gazes upon me, their looks a tapestry of sympathy and unease. This isolation, this separation, added a layer of grief, deepening the chill that had taken residence in my soul.

Amidst the turmoil of emotions and unanswered questions, a nagging sense of forgotten urgency tugged at the edges of my consciousness. There was something crucial, something vital I was overlooking, yet it danced just beyond my grasp.

"Emma?"