by Abbie McAnn
There is a secret about this lake house, and I sure as hell hope that you are ready to keep it. I think that I’ve left you enough money to earn your discretion.
I haven’t been living out here by myself. After William passed away, I adopted a young boy named Sam. He’s different, he’s not like you or me. He’s a very special boy and I would do anything to keep him safe from the world. Now that I’m gone, that is going to have to be your job. Sam can take care of this place, but if I’m gone, that means that he’s all alone. He’s a good boy and he needs a companion. I know that you might not want to do it, but I need you to. Like it or not, he’s your family. Just because he looks a little strange, doesn’t mean that he is any different than you or me.
I have given very detailed instructions to my lawyer. He will be keeping an eye on the situation after I pass. If you do not make this your permanent residence, you will not get the money. And if he finds out that you or your wife has told anyone about Sam, not only will you never see another penny of my fortune, but I will spend the rest of my afterlife haunting the shit out of you.
I hope that I’ve made myself clear.
Sam is a shy boy, so it might take him some time to make his presence known. In the meantime, I’ve left instructions on how to maintain just about everything on the property. And even when you do finally get to know Sam, you sure as shit better not make him do all the chores. My brother raised you much better than that.
Have a good life and take care of my boy.
John
Kate slowly closed the binder and stared at the front cover.
Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.
With wide eyes, she looked around the room. Her heart raced as her eyes bounced from one dark corner to the next. This mysterious Sam could be anywhere. Was he watching her right now?
She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and fumbled with the screen as she frantically call her sister.
“Finally! Why does it always take you so long to get back to me? Did you make it to the lake house?” Jessica asked.
“Jess, are you with Michael?” Kate asked, just a little too loudly. Her eyes were darting around the room and she had never felt so freaked out in her entire life. She had already been through this whole house and had seen no sign that a little boy lived here.
“Rude. Fine, don’t answer my question. I’m only trying to be a concerned sister. Maybe if-”
“Jessica,” Kate hissed. “Where is Michael?”
Jessica was silent for a moment. When she spoke again, she was much more serious. “He’s right here, we were just about to go to sbed. Is everything okay?”
“Can you please put me on speakerphone?” she pleaded.
“Okay, fine,” Jessica paused. “You’re on speakerphone now.”
“Does John have a son named Sam?” Kate asked.
“No,” Michael replied curtly. He was always the no-nonsense type and he had never been very friendly towards her. “His son was named William, but he passed away about fifteen years ago from leukemia.”
“Did John ever talk to you about someone named Sam?”
“I’ve never heard him mention that name before, so no,” Michael said.
“What is this about, Kate?” Jessica asked.
Kate cleared her throat. “John left a binder for Michael on how to take care of the property. The first page is a note for Michael, and it’s, well it's--I’m just going to have to read it to you.”
She reopened the binder and read them the note. Jessica and Michael stayed silent throughout the whole letter and no one spoke for a minute after she finished.
Kate waited for them to freak out, so she was a little shocked when they burst out laughing.
“You think this is funny?” Kate asked, her fear and anxiety quickly turning to anger. “I’m out here in the middle of nowhere and a mysterious person is hiding somewhere on this property, probably watching me right now! How could this possibly be funny?”
“Sorry, sorry,” Jessica said, not sounding very sorry. “It’s just that John was so crazy.”
“You have nothing to worry about, Kate. John’s mind was starting to go in his last few years. The last time I visited him, he was making up all kinds of absurd things,” Michael said. “I promise you that there is no one else living on that property. ‘Sam’ is just another figment of his imagination. I can even confirm it with John’s lawyer tomorrow. He’ll tell you too that there was no Sam. Now, do I need to be concerned about you doing this job? Because whether or not there is anyone else out there, we are paying you quite generously to be there.”
Kate rolled her eyes. Of course, that was Michael’s only concern, and not his sister-in-law's safety and well-being. She could hear Jessica quietly admonishing her husband. At least her sister had her back.
“I promise you that I am perfectly capable of doing this job. I swear that I will not leave this property, even if an ax murderer tries to kill me.”
Michael huffed and she could just imagine that look on his face.
“Well, I’m so glad that you made it there safely, Kate. Let us know if you need anything else!” Jessica said.
“Will do,” she replied.
Even after the phone call, Kate still felt a little unsettled. Jessica and Michael’s confident words should have reassured her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right here.
When she went to unpack her car, she turned on all the exterior lights. She ran her boxes inside, moving in record time. She ended up picking one of the upstairs guest rooms to sleep in. After reading that note, she had a weird feeling about the one on the first floor.
It took her a long time to fall asleep that night. As irrational as it was, she couldn’t stop thinking about John’s words. Her last thought before she finally drifted off was that she had no clue what she was getting in to out here.
Chapter 3
Kate stared at the small stack of wood. It was a sad little pile, just a few stray logs left in the woodshed beside the house. There was only enough left for three or four more fires. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the house had central heating, but as it was, she would turn into a popsicle at night without the fires.
She sighed. She would just have to man up and make some more.
Kate piled half of the remaining logs into the canvas tote. She followed the path to the back deck and reveled in the ache in her muscles. It had been such a long time since she had been able to do any kind of hard work. She was sorely out of shape, but she didn’t care. A few months here and she would be back in her prime.
Once she was back inside, she toed off her boots and shuffled toward the fireplace. Her muscles were straining from the weight and she could feel herself start to sweat. But she was able to make it. She dropped the tote and logs unceremoniously on the hearth and grunted from relief. The logs made a loud bang as they landed, and the noise echoed throughout the house. Kate didn’t care though; there was no one else here and it wasn’t like there were any neighbors to annoy.
She took a minute to stack the wood nicely by the fireplace before heading back into the kitchen.
Kate didn’t know whether to feel anxious or relieved that the binder was still sitting there on the counter. Some part of her had hoped that it had disappeared overnight.
As she stared at it, that same uneasy feeling returned. John had spent so much time creating those instructions for Michael. He had entrusted everything to him, and Michael didn’t even seem to care. All he cared about was the money. He had no problem sending Kate in his stead. In fact, he probably would have already sold the property if he could get away with it.
She knew he couldn't though.
John’s estate lawyer had made it very clear that Michael would only receive his inheritance if he relocated to the lake house and took over its care.
Of course, Michael wasn't having any of that. He immediately petitioned the will. The process took months, but the judge finally ruled that Michael could send ano
ther family member in his place. Unfortunately, John was the only family that Michael had left.
Kate had been on the verge of bankruptcy when Jessica came to her for help. Kate had been trying so hard to stay strong and she never wanted Jessica to know just how bad her money problems were.
Kate was drowning in debt, all thanks to Eric. When they first started dating, gambling was just something they would do for fun. They would drive over to Fremont Street and enjoy a night of drinking and playing slots. It didn't become a problem until Eric started to go without her. Before she knew it, he was spending all his time at the casinos. But Kate was understanding, after all, she loved him. She was understanding when he lost his job, she was understanding when he lost his savings, and she was understanding when he dipped into hers. Because they were in love.
What did it matter if she had no money, if she had him?
She had been a complete idiot.
When Eric left her, he had completely wrung her dry. She didn't even know the extent of the damage until he was long gone. He had taken out credit cards in her name and maxed out the cash advances on all of them. He had stolen her identity to take out payday loans. And their house...they had bought that house together after a year of dating. She owned just as much of it as he did. She still wasn't sure how he was able to use it as collateral on a loan without her permission.
But he had, so it was gone too. And he made sure to take off with anything of value she had inside.
She was penniless and days away from being homeless when Jessica offered her the job.
So yeah, Jessica could not have come at a better time.
And the salary that Jessica offered her to be the property manager of the lake house was much more than she had ever imagined making. It was even enough to dig herself out of the hole that Eric had left her in. For the first time in a long time, she felt hope.
But now, as she stared down at the binder, all she felt were chills.
It was obvious that the property was not what John had intended for Michael to take care of. He had wanted Michael to move here to look after Sam.
But Sam wasn't real. He couldn't be.
He had to have just been some figment of John’s imagination. John had been so grief-stricken by the loss of his son that his mind had created another child for him. And the years of isolation spent out here had only made Sam so much more real to John. Of course, he wasn’t actually real.
But then who did that bedroom belong to?
Kate’s stomach turned as she thought of the unmade bed and the cluttered room. It looked so well lived in.
That’s enough, Kate. There is no Sam. He is not real. John was just some crazy guy and the wilderness is obviously getting to you too. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this, so stop overreacting.
Right, okay. Kate was a big girl, and she wasn’t going to let the isolation get to her too. She was going to do her job and do it well. That meant that she had some chores to get started on.
She grabbed the binder and flipped to the daily chores list. There was a lot, but at least it would keep her mind busy.
The first thing on the list was to take care of the animals.
She stared at that bullet point, feeling her stomach drop.
John had animals? It had been almost half a year since he had passed and as far as she knew no one else had been out here. Had Michael known about the animals? He had to have known about thrm. He would have seen them in one of his visits. Had he left them here to die while he selfishly contested the will?
She flipped to the animal section and her eyes burned with tears as she turned the pages. John had all kinds of animals down in his barn. They would all be gone by now. What was Kate going to do about them?
She turned to the last page of the animal section to see that there was another handwritten note from John.
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do anything. Sam has been helping me take care of the animals for years. He knows them very well and they aren’t afraid of him. He can answer any questions you have. Hell, he’ll probably just continue taking care of them anyways. He’s been doing all the work since I got sick. Don’t let him ride the horses though; I don’t think they’d much take to that considering his extra features. It’s very important that you don’t let him get hurt by doing stupid things like that. If he does, you won’t be able to take him to any doctors. If he gets injured, please refer to the first aid binder.
There was a first aid binder too? She looked around the kitchen but didn't see it anywhere.
Kate sighed.
I guess I can't put off going to the barn forever. It would be better to deal with the animals now rather than later.
With the binder in hand, Kate went through the living room and out the back door and onto the porch. The house had a small backyard that turned into the sandy shore of the lake. Instead of heading in that direction, she took a path to the left then headed towards the barn.
As she got closer, she braced herself, expecting a rancid smell. However, the one she was met with just smelled like a regular old barn.
As she neared the open barn door, she was shocked when she heard a loud 'moo' followed by a horse braying.
She broke into a run, sprinting into the barn. She was shocked by what she saw.
Inside the stalls were horses, cows, goats, and chickens. They all looked perfectly healthy.
How was this possible? They should all be dead.
Kate walked from one stall to the next, staring at all the animals. Most of them stared back at her. One of the horses threw his head around and kicked at the wall. The bang echoed throughout the barn.
Nothing was wrong with the animals, except that all their stalls were a little bit dirty. But not six months dirty; it just looked like they hadn't been cleaned in a day. All of them looked to be out of food too, but their body weight showed that they hadn't been going hungry.
Kate flipped through the binder again and this time she thoroughly read the animal care section. She had never cared for livestock before, so she had to keep referring to it as she went about feeding them.
And then she got to work mucking the stalls. Luckily John seemed to know that Michael wasn't used to mucking stalls, because his instructions were very specific. Kate couldn't have been more grateful. The binder instructed one more thing. It wasn't easy, but she managed to put each of them in their turn outs.
As she looked at the grazing animals, she tried to figure out how they were still alive. It was obvious that they were being cared for, but by who?
Could it have been Sam? Michael had been adamant that he didn't exist. So then what the hell was going on here?
Kate distracted herself in the greenhouse, not wanting to think about it any further. It was hard not to, considering the immaculate state of the garden. The massive greenhouse contained fourteen raised beds. They each had a beautiful array of plants in different stages of growth.
She had never done any gardening, but it seemed like there should be at least one weed in the building. And who had planted all these things? It was possible that some of the plants would come back every year, but not all of them. Yet everything looked perfectly maintained. Nothing was growing wild and every plant that was in the greenhouse seemed to belong there. Not only that, but it looked like someone had recently planted things too. There were lots of little plants just starting to sprout in neat, organized lines. Surely, that couldn’t have happened by accident.
She watered the garden as the binder instructed. When she left the greenhouse, she tried to leave the thoughts of Sam behind with the plants.
It took Kate the rest of the day to finish John’s list of chores. She was exhausted. She had never done that much manual labor in one day. She barely had enough energy to make herself dinner and start a fire, before falling asleep on the couch.
The next few days were much the same. Though they took up most of her time, she loved working with all of John’s animals. And every time she looked
up, she was faced with the beautiful lake. Every day, the sun shone on the water and filled her with an overwhelming sense of serenity. She had never felt as peaceful as she did living next to the water.
Kate was surprised by just how easily she was taking to this outdoorsy lifestyle. The work was hard, but every chore she accomplished made her feel like she was really, truly doing something with her life.
There had also been no sign of this mysterious Sam or anyone else for that matter. Whoever had been taking care of the property in John’s absence must have left as soon as she got there. There was no other explanation for it.
On her fourth day, Kate realized that she could no longer ignore the firewood issue. She was down to her last log and the weather report said that the temperature was about to drop.
She didn’t have much of a chance to think about it until she was done with her morning chores. The house was only slightly warmer than outside when she came in for lunch, and she knew she would have to get some more wood.
She stuck her leftovers in the microwave and then turned to face the binder on the counter. Yesterday had been a good day. She had managed to finish all her chores without having to reference it.
But she was at a loss with the wood. It wasn’t like she could just chop down a tree, right? She had been in John’s workshop, so she knew he had a chainsaw and other saws and axes. But she had never had to use any of those things before. Something told her that metrosexual Michael had never operated a chainsaw either, so John must have left some instruction.
It took her a few minutes of flipping through the binder to find the right page. The microwave beeped, letting her know her lunch was ready, but she ignored it.
I’m sorry to leave you with such little firewood. I normally keep at least a cord of wood in the shed, but I went through most of it last winter. As much as it pains me, I’m not physically able to get more.