The dock was battered from years of neglect, splintered and creaky. I walk cat like towards the water to avoid getting pierced by the frayed wood. I look down at the murky slate colored water mirroring the gloom brought on by tonight’s storm. I look at the trees and the mountains. Such a quiet and serene setting with the wind playing its symphony.

I look back down at the water. It’s not clear enough to see the bottom. Something so mesmorizing about how the water gently swayed up and down. I lay down on my stomach on the dock with my head hanging over the water. In meditation mode and lost in my thoughts, I forgot where I was.

I wish there were fish to look at or even a turtle. I tap the water’s surface a few times simulating a grub. I was surprised to see a few minnows appear. They held their distance half a foot from the surface in caution. I spit in the water to see if they would come closer. They did for a moment and then in a blink they scattered away.

I got a little flutter in my stomach. Maybe there is something bigger in this lake than minnows, which would momentarily cure my boredom. There isn’t much to do here, it barely qualifies as a town in my book. Being outdoors is the only saving quality here, I can’t say it is anything less than breathtaking. Even on a dark day like today.

I wait patiently for a few seconds, I see a few bubbles surface so I wiggle my finger in the water and more bubbles arrive at excitement. There’s definitely something down there. And then before I could take my hand out of the water, before I could even blink; a creature bobbed straight to the surface and latched onto my arm.

My hand up to my forarm was in its throat with razor teeth grasping bone deep. I didn’t feel it in that part of my arm as much because its throat is lined with what feels like sharp rotating teeth; and it is twisting and grinding my hand to forearm flesh like a really slow blender until it all went numb at the final snap at my elbow. My other hand is holding onto the railing for dear life so I don’t go under. I scream the hardest I have ever screamed in my life, that I had scared my own self. No matter what I couldn’t scream as loud as I wanted to.

Whatever this thing was didn’t make a single sound. While I could not really get a good look It’s human like head and sopping wet hair was all black. It swallowed my torn arm leaving me bleeding out of my elbow. This gray scene was being painted with dark red.

I know I only have a moment before it goes for another bite so I stand up and start running to land but just like in our nightmares it feels like you can’t move your feet fast enough. I got a foot away before two jet black webbed hands with long claws grabbed me by my ankles. I land hard on my chest just about knocking the wind out of me and use my only tool left; my hand to grab whatever I could to not be taken. Splinters had a field day on my only arm and hand, but that didn’t compare to the claws hooked into my lower legs and ankles.

It was pointless. Just like that I was looking up at the gray sky through a filter as I am being dragged down by this creature. I didn’t know this lake could get even quieter. I didn’t feel anything. Slowly my eyes shut.

I jolt up in a panic and gather myself to sit up. I hug my body and look all over like when you walk into a spiderweb. Arms intact, no bites, I am okay. I am still gasping for air.

I get lost in thought, but never like that. I look around like a deer using all my senses ready to flee. I carefully lean over to look into the water. Nothing, no bubbles, no fish, no monsters.

To this day I don’t know what it was, I barely got a good look at it. I try to coerce myself into believing it didn’t actually happen but I live with the memory of the pain. You can’t imagine that kind of excruciating agony. I may never know, but I have never returned to the town again nor visited any bodies of water since.