by Ron Ripley
Lake Nutaq
Berkley Series Book 6
Written by Ron Ripley
Edited by Emma Salam
Copyright © 2017 by ScareStreet.com
All rights reserved
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Keeping it spooky,
Ron Ripley
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Darkness Comes In
Chapter 2: Lake Nutaq, New Hampshire
Chapter 3: Reasoning with the Dead
Chapter 4: At the Clubhouse
Chapter 5: Driving
Chapter 6: Surrounded by Darkness
Chapter 7: Stillness
Chapter 8: Perfect Weather for Sledding
Chapter 9: A Voice in the Stillness
Chapter 10: Frank Comes Home
Chapter 11: Questions Asked
Chapter 12: On the Phone
Chapter 13: Danny Swings By
Chapter 14: An Awakening
Chapter 15: In Mont Vernon
Chapter 16: Shane Gets Ready
Chapter 17: Anxious and Concerned
Chapter 18: A Long Night
Chapter 19: Getting Out
Chapter 20: Mark Makes a Decision
Chapter 21: At Berkley Street
Chapter 22: Not a Nightmare
Chapter 23: Moving Down the Road
Chapter 24: A Conversation with a German
Chapter 25: Patience is a Virtue
Chapter 26: Across Lake Nutaq
Chapter 27: A Good Drunk Spoiled
Chapter 28: The Englishman
Chapter 29: Across the Lake
Chapter 30: Discussions with the Dead
Chapter 31: Looking for the Boys
Chapter 32: A Bad Call
Chapter 33: On Lake Nutaq
Chapter 34: Noises in the Night
Chapter 35: Preparing to Leave
Chapter 36: Questions Without Answers
Chapter 37: Outside of Preston Road
Chapter 38: A Game He Doesn’t Want to Play
Chapter 39: Humored and Ignored
Chapter 40: A New Ally
Chapter 41: Danny Wakes Up
Chapter 42: The Band’s Back Together
Chapter 43: In Darkness
Chapter 44: Thinking About the Past
Chapter 45: Deeper into the Forest
Chapter 46: Still Awake
Chapter 47: Going Down Preston Road
Chapter 48: Jack Returns
Chapter 49: Not the Only One Alive
Chapter 50: With Doreen
Chapter 51: On the Edge of Lake Nutaq
Chapter 52: With Phil at Preston Road
Chapter 53: Do Not Look to Hope
Chapter 54: Unnatural
Chapter 55: The Watchers
Chapter 56: Dangerous Men
Chapter 57: A Rescue Attempt
Chapter 58: Meeting upon the Field
Chapter 59: On Lake Nutaq
Chapter 60: Fighting for the Boy
Chapter 61: Shock and Awe
Chapter 62: Help Needed
Chapter 63: A Visit from an Old Friend
Bonus Scene Chapter 1: Williamstown by Lake Nutaq, 1676
Bonus Scene Chapter 2: A Forbidden Conversation
Bonus Scene Chapter 3: Patience Found
Bonus Scene Chapter 4: Waiting in Anticipation
Bonus Scene Chapter 5: Trapped in the House
Bonus Scene Chapter 6: Hiding in the Woodpile
Bonus Scene Chapter 7: Four Days
Bonus Scene Chapter 8: Betrayal
Bonus Scene Chapter 9: The Return to Williamstown
FREE Bonus Novel!
Chapter 1: The Darkness Comes In
Shane woke up panting, his hands shaking. He fumbled as he went to turn on the light, the lamp rocking on its base. Shane grabbed hold of it and held onto the cool metal, forcing himself to calm down.
He had nearly succeeded too, until she screamed.
Goosebumps erupted on his skin as he shivered. Another scream burst from within the walls, rising to a crescendo before being cut off.
A thin, disturbing silence filled his bedroom.
Shane swallowed; his mouth was dry. His heart hammered in his chest, and he hesitated before he turned on the table lamp. He blinked as harsh, bright light exploded in the room. It shined into all of the dark corners.
Courtney was not in his room.
But he knew her screams hadn't been part of his nightmares, which revolved around his past.
God in heaven, Shane thought, letting out a shuddering breath. I can't do this.
A knock sounded on his door, and Shane answered, "Come in."
Carl passed through and stood in the room, lowering the temperature by several degrees.
"I'm sorry, my friend," Carl said in German, "but there are times when we lose control of her. Her madness makes her quite strong. You could always bind her."
Shane shot Carl a hard look. "I told you before, I'm not doing that. It's bad enough that I have to keep her locked up in the house. I'm not going to bind her to some little lead box, or stuff her into a bag of salt."
"Then I do not know what to do, my friend," Carl said.
"I do," Shane replied, getting off the bed. "I'm going out for a drive."
"For how long?" Carl asked.
Shane shrugged. "Long as it takes, I guess."
"As long as what takes?" Carl asked, frowning.
"To figure out what to do about Courtney," Shane said. He sighed, shook his head, and walked to the bathroom.
Chapter 2: Lake Nutaq, New Hampshire
Clark Johansen pulled his van up to the chain which stretched across the mouth of Preston Road. He was surprised to see the barrier was still intact. More often than not, he found it cut, with the tracks of snowmobiles having pressed it down into the snow.
Clark put the van into 'park' and let it idle as he forced the door open, climbing out into the bitter cold. He cleared his throat, spat a glob of mucus out, and pulled his custodial keys from his pocket. After several long and miserable seconds, he found the key to the padlock.
It looked like Danny, the plow driver, had already been down Preston Road. Banks close to four feet in height flanked either side of the narrow road, and Clark hoped like hell Danny hadn't forgotten to cover the padlock back up.
Clark sighed in relief as he saw the blue, weatherproof bag around the log. With his breath rushing out in white clouds, Clark bent over, undid the straps, and pulled the bag away. He fit the key into the lock, wrestled with it for a moment, and then grinned at the satisfying sound of the tumblers as they freed the latch.
Clark let the chain fall to the ground, pocketed the lock, and hurried back to the van. He climbed in, slammed the door behind him, and swore under his breath.
Too damn cold, he thought, pulling off his gloves. He turned up the heat and held his hands in front of the vents. As he let his fingers warm up, Clark looked out at the tall pine trees which grew up along both sides of the road. Snow clung to the branches, dull, gray clouds in the sky above them. The winter had been brutal so far, with harsh temperatures and more snowfall than in the past one hundred years.
While there
was no prediction of snow in the forecast, that didn't seem to mean anything.
Clark shifted the van into drive and headed down into the community. When it came down to it, he didn't care one way or another about the weather. The Society paid him a decent wage over the off-season months and kept him busy during vacation time. None of the owners could be troubled to fix their own, everyday domestic problems.
Clark snickered and pulled up to the first cottage, the one owned by the Zettels. Clark knew they were well to-do dentists from Cambridge, down in Massachusetts. He remembered when they bought the place, after being approved by the Society of course, and they had brought in some interior decorator. From New York, no less.
He shook his head at the memory and wondered what else the doctors wasted their money on.
Clark nodded in approval at the plowing job. Danny had been a good hire. He took care of everything, same as Clark did.
Different for a kid his age, Clark thought, coming to a stop in front of the door. He put his bag down, opened it, and pulled out a pair of disposable booties.
The interior was warm. A sure sign that the electric heater was running properly. Clark whistled to himself as he moved through the cabin. He checked the main room, the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom. Everything was in order. No broken windows. No sign of leaks or burst pipes. The taps ran, and the toilet flushed.
The wealth of the seasonal residents on Preston Road ensured that their power was always on.
Money makes the world go 'round, Clark thought, nodding to himself.
He finished his walk through; made sure he hadn't left any lights on, and left the house. The cold stung his face as he paused to take off the booties. Damn, it's so God-awful cold!
Clutching his belongings, Clark hustled back to the van. He climbed in, shivering, and slammed the door behind him. Clark turned the heat up to high and thought, Twenty-four more houses, and the damned clubhouse.
He looked to the far end of Preston Road and saw the clubhouse, a squat, ugly structure sitting like a wart on the face of the lake. It seemed to glare at him, the curtainless windows malevolent in the shadow of the porch.
Clark straightened up.
The front door of the clubhouse was open. Wide open, as if someone had swung it inwards and stuffed a wedge into it.
Frowning, Clark shifted the van into drive and rolled towards the open door.
Chapter 3: Reasoning with the Dead
"Why don't you wait for Frank?" Carl asked, worry clear in his voice, the German words sharp and powerful.
"Because I don't want Frank to come with me," Shane explained again. He yawned, his jaw popping as he did so.
"You need to sleep, my young friend," Carl said.
Shane smiled. "That's why I'm going out. I can't sleep, not with Courtney screaming. Not with the nightmares being worse than they've ever been."
"Perhaps you should see a doctor?" Carl asked. "There must be some medicine he could prescribe?"
"Probably," Shane said as he pulled his rucksack out from his closet and tossed it onto his bed. He opened his dresser, his left hand fumbling with the effort. His mind believed his missing fingers were there, arguing that the pinky and ring fingers hadn't been amputated.
Shane smiled, then winced, the fresh scar tissue on the left side of his head pulling too much. He sighed and tugged out fresh socks and underwear. Shane threw them to the bed, and then a pair of jeans and several tee-shirts as well.
"You look to be packing for an extended stay," Carl said.
"Might be," Shane said. "I'm not sure yet."
A shadow flickered by the bathroom door and Shane twisted towards it, adrenaline surging as he braced himself for an attack.
"My friend," Carl said, his voice low, "what is it?"
"I saw something by the bathroom," Shane replied. "Who else is in here, and why are they hiding from me?"
"No one else is in here," Carl said. Concern was etched on his face as he looked at Shane. "My friend, there is no one here in this room except you and myself."
Shane's eyes told him someone had been in the room. But he could hear the truth in Carl's words, and he could see the honesty in his dead friend’s face.
"I need to leave," Shane whispered. He walked to the bed and continued to pack his rucksack.
Chapter 4: At the Clubhouse
Clark approached the front door of the clubhouse cautiously. He didn't see any footprints in the snow, or paw prints either, but that didn't mean something or someone wasn't in the building. The wind could have opened the door. Or a squatter could have found his way down the road and decided the clubhouse was a better option than one of the cabins.
Either way, Clark didn't want to take any chances. In his right hand, he held a two-pound sledgehammer, his left arm extended, palm out and prepared to push anything away from him.
"Hello?" he called, stepping into the clubhouse. Clark glanced around. There was a smattering of wind-blown snow across the polished wood floor. All of the tables were covered with sheets. The backs of the chairs making each table look like a crowned ghost.
"Hello?" Clark called again.
Someone or something whimpered. The sound came from the back, near the kitchen.
He went to the right wall and crept along it, keeping an eye on the closed door to the kitchen.
"If you're in there, it's okay," Clark said, his voice breaking with fear. "I ain't going to press charges. You just need to get out."
He paused, then added, "Hell, if you need it, I'll give you a ride into town."
A pot or a pan rattled in the kitchen, and Clark stopped, a few feet from the door. The sledgehammer shook in his hand, and he switched it from his right to his left.
"Come on out now," Clark said, his voice hoarse, the words painful to speak.
I hope to God it's just a cat, he thought, and he took the last few steps to the front door. Hell, I’d even be okay if it’s a raccoon.
The closed door was without a handle, a brass push plate instead of a doorknob.
His hand trembled and his fingers touched the cold metal. All the noise behind the door ceased, and Clark hesitated.
Then, with a sharp exhalation, he pushed himself forward, thrusting the door open. It bounced off the wall, rebounded, and cracked against his extended arm, numbing it. In the dim light filtering down through the skylight above, Clark saw a small shape hunkered in the far right corner. A pile of small frying pans was nearby, but Clark focused on the figure.
It looked to be a child, crouched low in the protection of the corner’s darkness. The air was harsh and cold, smelling of something wet and foul.
“Hey,” Clark said, his courage returning at the sight of the invader’s size. “Hey. What are you doing in here?”
The child shook its head, long, dark brown hair hiding its face from him. A long, winding moan escaped from its chest.
“How did you get in here?” Clark asked, lowering the sledgehammer. “Are you alone?”
Still, the child refused to speak.
“Listen,” Clark said with as much authority as he could muster, “you’re in a lot of trouble. I’m going to have to call the cops, you know.”
Clark stepped further into the room, letting the door swing closed behind him. When it had, a shadow to his left caught his eye, and Clark turned to look at it.
It towered above him, reaching from the old boards of the floor to the tin panels of the ceiling. Waves of cold emanated from the shadow and Clark took a horrified, fearful step backward. The sledgehammer fell from his hand, slamming into the floor and denting the wood.
Clark glanced over to the child, who had straightened up. Its face was pale, the features elfin and fine, the eyes wide and light blue. Clark couldn’t tell if the child was a boy or a girl, its long, dark brown hair ragged and unkempt. A thick, dark gray, woolen blanket was wrapped around it. From the fabric’s depths, a pale, thin hand clutched the blanket closed.
Clark opened his mouth, to ask what
the creature was, to see if the child had come with it, but he couldn’t.
The air was stolen from his lungs, his mouth robbed of his words as he realized he could see through the child. He caught a faint glimmer of the stovetop through the child’s face. A sharp, piercing scream exploded in to the silence of the kitchen, dropping Clark to his knees. He clamped his hands over his ears.
A second later, his own scream joined the first as a cold and brutal hand grabbed his neck from behind, and started to squeeze.
Chapter 5: Driving
Over his lifetime, Shane had gotten used to many things, and he had eventually taken them for granted. One such item was the ability to drink coffee and drive a car at the same time.
When he had first driven as a teenager, it would have been impossible. He would have lived in fear of an accident with another vehicle, or of making a mess in the car itself. By the time he had reached forty-two, he could smoke a cigarette, negotiate the perils of traffic, drink his coffee, and curse roundly at other drivers.
Those days, Shane thought, looking down at the cup of coffee in the console, are long gone and far away now.
He hadn’t mastered the art of driving the car with the remnants of his left hand, which would have left him with the opportunity to hold his drink with his right.
At least I can still smoke, Shane thought. He tapped the head of the cigarette into the ashtray, put the cigarette back into his mouth, and waited for the light to turn green. In a few minutes, he was following traffic down the ramp onto Route Three, and leaving Nashua behind him.
Nashua, Berkley Street, Courtney. He shook his head. Leaving it all behind for a while.
Part of him wanted to leave it all for good. If he didn’t get some sleep and figure out how to make his world better, Shane knew he might have to.
He had no desire to die in his own house.
With a sigh, he pushed those thoughts out of his mind and headed north. The comforting sound of traffic, the monotony of it, and the complete lack of pressure allowed him to relax. He blinked, yawned, and felt sleep trying to steal over him.