• She is still here. I can feel her now. Little Sophie still hasn't left the lake. As I look at her shoes I remember her even now. I have come to this spot once every year hoping she has gone, left this horrible place. But alas no, she still resides over the lake. Becoming more and more lost each year.
    I met Sophie when I was 8 and we were good friends. She was a secret to everyone else’s eyes, but I could see her. She told me that she lived here, on the lake. She asked me one thing, to never talk about her to anyone else, because they wouldn't believe me and would take me away. I held on to that secret and she remained my secret friend. We would play for hours and hours, but over time she started asking me to play some weird games. Once she asked me to hold my breath underwater and see how long I could go. I said ok and held my head under the water, and then she did something funny. She grabbed my head and held it under. I couldn’t breathe and was losing air fast. Then all of a sudden she let go. 'I only wanted to make the game more fun' she promised. I stopped playing with her for a while after that. Until one day she found me. I have never seen someone look so beautiful, pulling me with her gaze toward the lake. As soon as my feet touched the water she changed. Her face twisted in rage and her features distorted. I ran, and she didn’t follow me, but she threatened me. 'I will have you Daniel, you are never safe!' That’s when I told.
    My family took me away, put me in a strange place with weird jackets that have arms going all the way around. 'It's a game' said my mother and I had fun, until I found out why I was here and where I was. I checked myself out of the asylum when I was 23. But by that time it was too late. I grew up in the asylum, and I had been scared mentally and physically by that place. The horrors that lay beyond those large iron doors are indescribable. I will never be the same and still can’t wear shirts with long sleeves.......but that’s a different story.
    I turned my gaze to clear my head. 'Sophie!' I called. I didn’t mind calling out to her here because I know that no one is near. Sophie had taken them all. She preyed mostly on children. Once upon a time the lake was full of children and people, until Sophie changed. Her mind was leaving slowly and she was losing herself a little more each day. This continued until she was no longer herself. She started taking them slowly, under the cover of night. Her first victims were the Smith children. They were bad children, sneaking out at night and doing unholy acts with each other near the lake. One night Sophie got bored. A Smith child and a boy were down by the lake one night, Sophie didn’t like that.
    'What was that?' the boy asked. 'What? Oh I don’t know, don’t worry about it. Just don’t stop, this feels amazing.' She grinned darkly and he continued. Another noise, but this time no one looked up, how very unfortunate for them. All of a sudden Sophie came from the bushes and attacked. No one knows the complete details about it, no one could think of what could have ripped their limps clean off and scattered them so far around the lake.
    But I knew.